By 

G.  H.  GERBERDING 

D.D.,  LL.D. 


^^ftz^rsmmaamamibia^m^iKm 


iSK^fSM 


^^jS^^^^ 


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|>^  PRINCETON,  N.  J.  *^ 


BX    8080    .W45    G47    1916 
Gerberding,    G.    H.    1847-1927 
R.    F.    Weidner,    D.D.    LL.D. 


.y.'' 


R.F.WEIDNER 


D.D.,  LL.D. 


A  Character  Sketch 

An  Appreciation 

A  Tribute 


G.  H.  GERBERDING 
D.D.,  LL.D. 


Contents 


I. 

Doctor  Weidner  as  a  Teacher. 

II. 
Doctor  Weidner  as  a  Preacher. 

III. 
Doctor  Weidner  as  a  Writer. 

IV. 
Doctor  Weidner  as  a  President. 

V. 
Doctor  Weidner  as  a  Man. 

VI. 
Doctor  Weidner's  Affliction  and  Death. 

VII.  ^ 
Doctor  Weidner's  Funeral. 

VIII. 

Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Death  of 

Dr.  Weidner. 

IX. 

Doctor  Weidner  as  One  of  His  Students 

Saw  Him. 

X. 

The  Loving  Cup. 

XI. 
A  Colleague's  Tribute. 


Foreword 

DOCTOR  Weidner  was  a  great  student 
of  good  Biography.  He  Mghly  ap- 
preciated its  importance  and  value.  He 
never  wearied  of  urging  Ms  students  to 
diligently  study  this  form  of  history.  He 
claimed  that  a  man  who  is  at  home  in  the 
biographies  of  the  great  men  of  history,  the 
men  who  have  made  history,  who  have  left 
an  impress  upon  the  ages  in  which  they 
lived  and  labored,  is  a  scholar  in  no  mean 
sense  of  the  word. 

This  booklet  is  not  a  biography.  It  is 
a  character-sketch.  It  is  an  appreciation. 
It  is  written  out  of  an  appreciative  and 
loving  heart.  The  writer  of  this  labored 
under  and  by  the  side  of  the  mighty  maker 
of  Chicago  Seminary  for  a  fuU  score  of 
years.  He  had  time  to  study  this  unique 
character,  to  measure  him,  to  understand 
him. 


8  Foreword 

To  be  the  helper  of  such  a  big  builder; 
to  be  close  to  him  in  the  privacy  of  his 
study,  in  his  little  family,  in  class  and 
lecture  room,  in  chapel-worship,  in  great 
assemblies,  on  long  and  short  journeys,  in 
walks  and  talks  and  earnest  plannings  and 
sometime  sharp  discussions;  to  counsel  and 
pray  together  in  dark  days,  to  rejoice  to- 
gether in  bright  days,  to  exchange  views  on 
the  great  subjects  taught  in  the  Seminary, 
on  the  best  methods  of  teaching,  on  the 
responsibility  and  the  difi&culty  of  making 
the  right  kind  of  ministers,  soul  saving, 
soul  building  and  age-bettering  men  out  of 
what  seemed  so  often  unpromising  material, 
to  have  heart  to  heart  talks  on  times  and 
tendencies  and  men  and  measures  on  hopes 
and  visions  of  what  God  might  have  in  store 
for  our  school — all  this  was  certainly  a 
precious  privilege. 

And  in  this  score-long  and  varied 
intimacy  we  certainly  ought  to  come  to 
know  each  other. 


The   Old   Home   where    R.    F.   Weidner  was  born  and 
brought  up 


Foreword        9 

We  appreciate  the  delicacy  and  the 
difficulty  of  sending  forth  to  the  public 
and  setting  before  future  generations  the 
portrait  of  the  man,  the  colleague,  the 
brother,  the  leader,  the  master  with  whom 
we  lived  and  loved  and  labored  so  long. 
Each  writer  sees  with  his  own  eyes,  looks 
from  his  own  viewpoint  and  judges  with 
his  own  judgment. 

View-points  and  judgments  differ.  It 
is  better  so.  The  world,  life  and  literature 
would  be  a  dull  monotony  if  all  looked 
through  the  same  eyes.  A  wise  and  good 
God  has  made  us  to  differ.  No  one  is  in- 
fallible in  judgment  or  perfect  in  character. 
One  only  was  sinless  among  the  sinful. 

Doctor  Weidner  was  not  perfect.  A 
true  character-sketch  dare  not  picture  him 
as  perfect.  We  cannot  get  a  true  per- 
spective of  his  character  without  seeing 
his  failings.  De  mortuis  nil  nisi  bonum  is 
a  sweet  sentiment  and  a  splendid  rule  for 
private    conversation.      But   it   cannot   be 


i^ Foreword 

literally  followed  by  the  biographer.  The 
inspired  writers  of  bible  biography  cer- 
tainly did  not  follow  it.  To  follow  it 
literally  would  never  give  us  a  real,  true 
life-picture. 

We  do  not  expect  to  meet  a  perfect 
character  in  this  world.  And  for  the  same 
reason  we  do  not  expect,  except  in  fiction, 
to  find  a  full  portrayal  of  a  character 
without  finding  faults  and  weaknesses 
portrayed. 

Is  it  then  a  reflection  on  the  loved  and 
lamented  dead  to  portray  him  as  he  really 
was?  That  depends.  If  his  biographer 
should  set  down  certain  flaws  and  weak- 
nesses in  a  spirit  of  malice,  make  the  faults 
glaring,  leave  them  without  charitable  ex- 
planation and  extenuation,  then  indeed  he 
would  be  unfit  to  write  a  character-sketch. 

But  if  he  speaks  the  truth  in  love, 
magnifies  the  virtues,  minnifies  the  weak- 
nesses and  speaks  of  them  only  where  it 
seems  to  him  to  be  necessary  to  a  clear 


Foreword  11 

understanding,  apologizes  for  his  hero, 
delights  to  speak  well  of  him  and  puts  the 
most  charitable  construction  on  all  his 
actions,  then  he  who  would  criticise  the 
writer  mikindly  would  show  himself  to  be 
lacking  in  true  charity. 

And  after  all  is  said  does  it  not  bring 
a  great  and  good  character  closer  to  all  of 
us  to  see  some  of  his  weaknesses?  Can  we 
not  love  him  all  the  better  for  his  faults'? 

A  good  but  impulsive  and  oft  impatient 
woman  once  said  to  the  writer:  *'I  like 
Peter  better  than  any  other  apostle." 
When  asked  why,  she  said:  "Because  he's 
so  much  like  myself."  Was  there  not  a 
true  philosophy  of  heart  and  life  in  this? 

Doctor  Weidner  ought  not  to  be  for- 
gotten. His  character,  his  faith,  his  work 
and  his  whole  life  ought  to  go  down  to 
future  generations  and  remain  as  an  abid- 
ing inspiration.  From  him  let  all  laborers 
in  the  Lord's  vineyard  learn  to  expect  great 


12  Foreword 

things  from  God  and  to  undertake  great 
things  for  God. 

It  is  with  this  hope  and  prayer  that  we 
send  forth  this  tribute  of  love. 

Dr.  Weidner  was  born  in  Center  Valley, 
Lehigh  county,  Pa.,  November  22,  1851. 
He  graduated  at  Muhlenberg  College  in 
1869,  graduated  at  Philadelphia  Seminary 
in  1873.  Married  Miss  Emma  Salome 
Jones,  of  Philadelphia,  July  10,  1873.  Ee- 
ceived  the  title  of  D.D.  from  Muhlenberg 
College  in  1894,  and  in  the  same  year  the 
title  of  LL.D.  from  Augustana  College  and 
Theological  Seminary.  He  was  pastor  in 
Phillipsburg,  N.  J.,  from  1873  to  1878. 
During  two  years  of  this  time  he  was  also 
professor  of  English  History  and  Logic  in 
Muhlenberg  College.  He  was  pastor  of  St. 
Luke's  Church,  Philadelphia,  from  1878  to 
1882.  Became  professor  of  Hebrew  and 
Greek  Exegesis,  Dogmatics  and  Ethics  in 
Augustana  Theological  Seminary  in  1882 
and  remained  until  the  Chicago  Seminary 


Foreword  13 

was  founded  in  1891.  Since  then  he  has 
been  president  of  Chicago  Seminary,  till 
the  Board  of  Directors,  at  his  own  request, 
released  him  in  October,  1913,  and  made  him 
President  Emeritus.  He  has  been  Pro- 
fessor of  Dogmatics,  Hebrew  and  Greek 
Exegesis  and  Philosophy.  He  has  sub- 
stituted in  practically  every  course  in  the 
seminary. 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Teacher 


The  Church  in  which  R.  F.  Weidnei   was  baptized 
Center  Valle}-,  Pa. 


DR.  WEIDNER  AS  A  TEACHER 

"VTO  man  can  be  a  good  teacher  who  has 
^  ^  not  been  a  good  student.  From  early 
childhood  Dr.  Weidner  took  to  learning,  to 
hearing  and  asking  questions  and  to  books. 
His  father  appreciated  education.  He  saw 
the  possibilities  that  were  latent  in  his  only 
child,  Franklin  Revere.  The  first  rudi- 
mentary schooling,  next  to  what  he  had 
received  from  his  farseeing  farmer  parents, 
was  in  the  country  school  of  his  home  di- 
strict. But  he  outgrew  that  in  a  short 
time.  He  was  soon  sent  to  a  select  school 
in  Allentown,  and  then  as  he  outgrew  that 
to  a  Collegiate  Institute  and  Military 
Academy.  Doubtless  the  latter  helped  to 
make  him  so  punctual,  methodical  and 
exacting  with  himself  and  with  others. 
When  Muhlenberg  College  was  opened  in 
1867  Revere  entered  the  junior  class  and 
graduated  with  first  honor  two  years  later. 


18  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Teacher 

In  Ms  academical  years  he  had  shown 
and  developed  a  taste  and  talent  for 
mathematics.  A  classmate  claims  that  he 
was  a  mathematical  prodigy.  Students 
thus  gifted  are  often  weak  in  the  study 
of  languages.  But  young  Weidner,  the 
mathematician  showed  an  equal  if  not  a 
superior  liking  and  aptitude  for  the  ancient 
classics.  Under  the  superior  teaching  of 
that  eminent  scholar  and  teacher,  Dr.  F.  A. 
Muhlenberg,  Student  Weidner  soon  sur- 
passed all  his  classmates  in  Greek.  Under 
Dr.  Maun,  that  prince  among  teachers  in  the 
Philadelphia  Seminary,  yomig  Weidner  ran 
ahead  of  all  others  in  mastering  Hebrew. 
There  is  a  tradition  that  Dr.  Mann  once 
said  that  Weidner  had  been  the  best 
Hebrew  student  that  he  had  ever  had.  Dur- 
ing his  first  pastorate  Dr.  Weidner  took  a 
special  course  in  Anglo-Saxon  under  the 
celebrated  Dr.  March,  of  Lafayette  College. 
Early  in  life  he  became  a  member  of  the 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Teacher  19 

American  Oriental  Society  and  of  the 
Society  of  Biblical  Literature  and.  Exegesis. 

Dr.  Weidner  was  gifted  with  a  colossal 
memory.  He  rarely  forgot  anything  that 
he  had  once  known.  HQLs  memory  for 
names,  dates  and  details  was  a  constant 
surprise  to  those  who  knew  him.  He  had 
a  remarkable  talent  for  absorbing  what 
others  had  worked  out.  He  could  go  over 
a  chapter,  a  discussion  or  even  a  book, 
with  unusual  rapidity  and  know  its  main 
contents.  He  would  know  what  he  had 
thus  absorbed  as  if  he  had  originated  it.  In 
him  was  demonstrated  to  a  degree  that  is 
rare  that  "reading  maketh  a  full  man." 
From  this  came  his  remarkable  ability  as 
a  compiler. 

Not  every  one  who  knows,  however, 
can  be  a  good  teacher.  The  scholar  must 
be  able  to  impart  to  others  what  he  knows. 
The  good  teacher  must  be  able  to  teach  the 
pupil  that  he  may  know  so  really  that  he 
will  be  able  to  reproduce  what  he  has  been 


20  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Teacher 

made  to  know  and  will  want  to  put  it  into 
practice.  This  and  this  only  is  real 
teaching. 

Dr.  Weidner  could  impart  to  his  stu- 
dents what  he  knew  himself.  Not  only 
could  he  make  them  know,  but  he  made 
them  want  to  know  more.  His  whole  great 
physical  and  mental  nature  was  filled  with 
enthusiasm.  This  always  flamed  forth  in 
his  teaching.  His  enthusiasm  was  con- 
tagious. His  classes  caught  it.  They  felt 
that  they  too  must  work.  They  felt  that 
they  wanted  to  work,  and  they  did  work. 

There  are  shirkers  in  almost  every 
class.  With  such  the  Doctor  had  no 
patience.  His  wonderful  capacity  for  work 
and  attainment  inclined  him  to  expect  too 
much  of  his  students.  Because  the  Doctor 
himself  could  absorb  and  remember  what 
he  heard  another  read  he  seemed  to  think 
that  his  students  could  do  so  likewise,  and 
was  in  danger  of  overtaxing  them. 

Dr.  Weidner  began  his  teaching  career 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Teacher 21 

while  he  was  still  a  student.  During  his 
senior  year  in  college  and  for  the  year 
following  he  was  tutor  in  the  preparatory 
department.  Even  then  he  put  his  whole 
big  enthusiasm  into  his  work  and  put  a 
tonic  for  work  into  his  students.  During 
his  first  pastorate  he  was  for  two  years 
professor  of  history,  English  and  logic  in 
Muhlenberg  College.  One  of  his  students 
was  W.  A.  Passavant,  Jr.  After  many 
years  he  informed  the  writer  that  it  was 
in  Dr.  Weidner 's  classes  that  he  had  ac- 
quired that  love  for  history  that  never  left 
him. 

In  1881  the  Doctor  received  a  call  to 
become  the  first  English  professor  in 
Augustana  Theological  Seminary,  Rock 
Island,  111.  He  was  only  thirty  years  old. 
It  meant  much  for  him  to  give  up  the  old 
Mother  Synod  in  which  he  had  been  born 
and  educated  and  in  which  undoubted  pro- 
motions were  in  prospect.  Up  to  this  time 
he  had  been  a  stranger  to  the  great  West 


22      Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Teacher 

and  to  its  sturdy  Scandinavian  Lutherans. 
Thoug  young,  he  had  a  well-trained  and 
matured  mind,  enriched  with  a  wide  range 
of  reading.  He  was  called  to  teach  Greek 
and  Hebrew  Exegesis.  He  had  doubtless 
been  suggested  by  Dr.  Passavant  who 
strongly  urged  him  to  go.  After  mature 
deliberation  he  accepted  the  call.  It  was 
not  long  before  he  was  teaching,  in  addition 
to  Exegesis,  Old  and  New  Testament 
Theology,  Dogmatics,  Ethics  and  Theolog- 
ical Encyclopedia.  Here  he  labored  with  all 
his  indefatigable  energy  and  optimistic  en- 
thusiasm for  twelve  years.  He  easily  over- 
rated the  ability  of  his  hard-working 
students  to  cover  the  ground  he  had  mapped 
out  for  them.  But  many  caught  his  en- 
thusiasm and  carried  it  with  them  through 
life.  His  method  of  teaching  Hebrew  was 
unique  and  different  from  that  generally  in 
vogue.  It  was  the  sainted  Dr.  Mann  of  the 
Philadelphia  Seminary  who  had  fired  him 
with  a  love  for  Hebrew.    Dr  Weidner  after- 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Teacher  23 

ward  changed  to  the  later  and  more  modern 
method  of  teaching  it.  Instead  of  having 
the  students  master  the  rudiments  of 
grammar  first,  he  introduced  them  into  the 
text  at  once  and  familiarized  them  with  the 
rudiments  as  they  went  along.  It  was  re- 
markable how  much  he  accomplished  in  a 
short  time.  But  he  was  an  accomplished 
drill-master  and  made  large  use  of  the 
blackboard.  His  achievements  in  teaching 
Hebrew  had  become  known  to  Dr.  Harper 
of  the  Chicago  University,  who  it  is  said 
sought  to  lure  him  away  from  Augustana 
Theological  Seminary  with  the  offer  of  a 
$5,000  salary. 

It  was  in  the  earlier  years  of  his 
western  work  that  Drs.  "Weidner  and 
Harper  had  foimd  each  other.  The  latter 
was  a  specialist  in  Hebrew  and  in  Semitic 
languages,  as  well  as  the  real  maker  of  the 
Chicago  University  and  the  promoter  of 
summer  schools  for  the  study  of  Hebrew 
and  Greek. 


24  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Teacher 

For  a  number  of  years  Dr.  Weidner 
labored  with  Dr.  Harper  in  these  summer 
schools  at  Chautauqua,  N.  Y.,  and  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  country.  Dr.  Harper  ap- 
preciated Dr.  Weidner  most  highly  as  a 
teacher.  When  he  was  conducting  a  He- 
brew institute  he  wanted  Dr.  Weidner  to 
come  from  Chicago  to  Philadelphia  and 
give  him  one  day  a  week  in  this  winter 
school.  So  highly  did  he  rate  Dr.  Weidner 's 
teaching  that  he  is  said  to  have  renewed 
his  offer  of  five  thousand  dollars  a  year. 
Dr.  Weidner  remained  with  the  Chicago 
Seminary,  where  fifteen  hundred  was 
all  he  was  getting  at  the  time.  Dr. 
Harper  also  had  Dr.  Weidner  collaborate 
with  him  in  getting  out  the  five 
hundred  page  ''Introductory  New  Testa- 
ment Greek  Method."  It  is  said  that  Dr. 
Weidner  did  nearly  all  the  work  on  that 
book,  which  is  probably  more  widely  used 
in  theological  and  other  schools  for  begin- 


R.  F.  Weidner,  19  years  old 


Dr.  IVeidner  as  a  Teacher 25 

ners  in  New  Testament  Greek  than  any 
other  text-book. 

For  several  summers  Dr.  Weidner 
taught  Hebrew  at  the  Mount  Gretna  Sum- 
mer School.  One  of  the  most  scholarly 
pastors  in  Pennsylvania  said  to  the  writer 
of  this  that  Dr.  Weidner  at  Mt.  Gretna  had 
first  given  him  such  an  intelligent  insight 
into  and  love  for  Hebrew  in  particular  and 
for  systematic  study  in  general  that  he  had 
never  lost  it. 

Mr.  Dwight  L.  Moody  had  also  found 
Dr.  Weidner.  He  had  the  Doctor  lecture 
regularly  for  a  whole  winter  to  a  group  of 
over  a  hundred  ministers  of  all  denomina- 
tions in  Chicago.  We  once  met  two 
Presbyterian  ministers  in  North  Dakota 
who  had  attended  these  lectures  and  they 
informed  us  with  emphasis  and  enthusiasm 
that  they  had  never  seen  so  much  in  the 
Pauline  epistles  as  they  did  under  Dr. 
Weidner 's  teaching.  They  both  considered 
him  the  best  teacher  of  the  Bible  that  they 


26  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Teacher 

had  ever  heard.  Mr.  Moody  had  Dr. 
Weidner  give  courses  in  the  New  Testament 
at  Northfield  also.  Dr.  Harper  once  told 
Dr.  Jacobs  that  he  had  heard  Mr.  Moody 
say  that  he  considered  Dr.  Weidner  the 
most  interesting  teacher  he  had  ever 
known. 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher 


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DR.  WEIDNER  AS  A  PREACHER 

TN  his  early  ministry  Dr.  Weidner  assisted 
■^  the  eloquent  Dr.  Seiss  in  historic  old 
St.  John's  Church,  Philadelphia.  As  assist- 
ant, young  Weidner  regularly  conducted 
the  liturgical  part  of  the  service.  He  also 
substituted  for  Dr.  Seiss  frequently  in  the 
pulpit. 

The  young  preacher  always  coveted 
earnestly  the  best  gifts.  He  had  that 
praiseworthy  ambition  to  excel  by  bring- 
ing the  very  best  gifts  to  God  in  his 
vocation.  A  very  different  man  from  Dr. 
Seiss,  he  was  influenced  by  him.  He  learned 
from  him.  He  assimilated  much.  He  did 
not  become  the  same  preacher  that  he  would 
have  been  had  he  not  been  the  regular 
assistant  of  Dr.  Seiss. 

As  we  study  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  preacher 
we  bear  in  mind  that  by  natural  endow- 
ment,  by   earnest   desire   and   by   special 


30  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher 

acquirement,  he  became  a  great  teacher. 
But  for  nine  years  he  served  in  the  regular 
ministry  as  pastor  of  a  congregation. 
Bearing  in  mind  that  he  always  threw  his 
whole  great  self  into  his  calling,  he  wanted 
to  be  and  became  the  best  preacher  it  was 
possible  to  make  of  himself.  When  he 
preached,  the  whole  big  man  preached. 
He  preached  with  all  his  big  force  and 
energy.  Those  nine  years  in  his  own  pulpit 
gave  him  a  style  and  a  method  all  his  own. 
His  style  and  method  became  a  part  of 
himself,  a  second  nature. 

As  he  was  always  a  student  and  always 
studied  with  a  view  to  imparting  to  others 
what  he  was  learning  he  taught  while  he 
preached.  Afterwards  when  he  became  a 
regular  teacher  he  could  not  throw  off 
what  had  become  a  part  of  himself  and  all 
his  life  through  he  preached  when  he 
taught.  He  never  separated  the  two.  So 
likewise  he  could  not  lecture  without  teach- 
ing and  preaching  at  the  same  time.    This 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher  31 

doubtless  was  one  great  element  of  his 
popularity  as  a  platform  lecturer.  The 
professional  lecturer,  as  a  rule,  has  a  dis- 
cussion before  an  audience.  The  good 
preacher  brings  a  message,  a  living  mes- 
sage, a  message  with  high  aim  and  purpose, 
to  an  audience.  Grood  preaching  has  in  it 
a  human  appeal  that  pure  lecturing,  how- 
ever good,  does  not  have.  To  read  or  speak 
before  people  is  one  thing,  to  speak  and 
appeal  to  them  is  another.  The  one  in- 
structs and  pleases.  The  other  instructs, 
moves  and  impels  to  action. 

As  Dr.  Weidner  always  had  life  and 
living  appeal  in  his  lectures,  he  was  wel- 
comed wherever  he  spoke.  He  was  not 
much  more  than  a  youth  when  he  was  re- 
quested to  deliver  a  lecture  before  the 
Evangelical  Alliance  in  New  York. 

Classed  With  Best  Living  Preachers 

That  he  had  a  wide  reputation  as  a 
preacher  is  evident  from  the  fact  that  when 


32  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher 

the  Funk  and  Wagnalls  Company  projected 
a  ten-voliune  work  of  sermons  of  the  best 
living  preachers,  Dr.  Weidner  was  selected 
as  one.  The  full  title  of  the  work  is  *' Mod- 
ern Sermons  by  World  Scholars,"  edited 
by  Robert  Scott  and  William  C.  Stiles, 
editors  of  the  Homiletic  Review.  In 
Voliune  X,  page  87,  we  find  Dr.  Weidner 's 
sermon. 

Among  the  one  hundred  and  seventeen 
sermons,  by  as  many  different  preachers,  in 
this  collection  it  might  be  hard  to  find  a 
more  instructive  and  more  scriptural  one 
than  this.  Dr.  Weidner 's  sermons  were 
always  saturated  with  Scripture.  After  a 
careful  reading  of  this  sermon  we  feel  that 
we  know  the  Old  Testament  better,  that  we 
know  prophecy  better,  that  we  know  the 
times  and  peoples  better,  that  we  know 
God  better. 


R.   F.  Weidner 

as  Professor  in  Augustana  Theological  Seminary 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher 33^ 

Early  Pulpit  Work 

Going  back  to  his  first  pastorate,  we 
are  informed  that  the  older  members  of 
Grace  Church  in  Phillipsburg,  N.  J.,  still 
speak  most  highly  of  yomig  Weidner 's 
preaching.  Mr.  Thomas  Beckwith  was  the 
secretary  of  the  church  council  during  the 
whole  of  his  pastorate.  He  writes  us  that 
even  in  those  early  days  the  young  preacher 
was  "practicing  his  favorite  diversion  of 
doing  three  men's  work  himself."  He 
gathered  and  organized  the  first  German 
congregation  in  the  town.  To  this  little 
flock  that  met  in  his  English  church  on 
Sunday  afternoons  he  preached  German 
regularly,  while  he  preached  twice  to  his 
Grace  English  congregation.  At  the  same 
time  he  was  filling  a  professorship  in 
Muhlenberg  College.  Both  the  English  and 
German  congregations  prospered  greatly 
during  his  pastorate.  People  from  all  over 
the  city  flocked  to  hear  hun.  The  German 
congregation  that  he  founded  and  fostered 


34  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher 

into  vigor  is  today  the  prosperous  St.  John's 
German  Lutheran  Church.  Some  young- 
preachers  of  today  think  they  are  being 
killed  when  they  have  to  preach  three  times 
a  day.    Not  so  preacher  Weidner. 

Pulpit  Work  in  Philadelphia 

The  editor  of  The  Lutheran  kindly 
furnishes  this  information  about  Dr.  Weid- 
ner's  preaching  in  Philadelphia:  "He  was 
regarded  as  particularly  strong  in  making 
the  Bible  speak  to  his  people.  It  was  his 
custom  to  have  a  Testament  in  his  hand 
while  preaching.  He  seldom  preached  a 
sermon  without  first  of  all  making  the  con- 
text entirely  clear.  He  was  specially  strong 
in  popular  exegesis.  His  vigorous  style 
with  his  enthusiasm  for  the  truth  was 
always  bound  to  make  an  impression.  He 
is  still  very  highly  spoken  of  by  the  older 
members  of  St.  Luke's  Church." 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher  35 

Popularity  at  Rock  Island 
The  Rev.  Dr.  G.  W.  Sandt,  who  was 
a  professor  in  Augustana  College  while 
Dr.  Weidner  w^as  professor  in  the  seminary, 
writes  thus  of  his  preaching  in  and  around 
Rock  Island:  "Dr.  Weidner  had  quite  a 
reputation  as  a  forceful  preacher  among 
Presbyterians  and  Congregationalists  in 
that  section.  He  was  frequently  called 
upon  to  preach  for  them  and  was  en- 
thusiastically welcomed  everywhere.  I 
used  to  hear  him  preach  frequently  in  the 
college  chapel.  These  sermons  were  chiefly 
exegetical  and  his  exhortations  were  too 
much  off-hand." 

It  was  after  Dr.  Weidner  had  come 
West  that  his  greatness  as  a  speaker  became 
apparent.  His  frequent  supplying  of  the 
principal  Reformed  pulpits  in  and  around 
Rock  Island  brought  him  into  contact  with 
Chicago.  Through  some  of  these  connect- 
ing links  D.  L.  Moody  and  President  Harper 
found  Dr.  Weidner.     All  that  the  doctor 


36  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher 

needed  to  create  a  demand  for  his  services 
was  a  hearing.  He  was  discovered  as  a 
powerful  preaching  teacher.  He  had  made 
a  special  study  of  the  Pauline  Epistles.  On 
the  basis  of  these  thorough  studies  he  had 
prepared  a  number  of  lectures  for  Y.  M. 
C.  A.,  Sunday-school,  Summer  School,  stu- 
dent and  ministers'  gatherings.  One  class 
of  hearers  would  enthusiastically  commend 
him  to  another.  So  it  was  that  during  his 
last  Rock  Island  and  his  first  Chicago  years 
he  was  in  constant  demand  as  a  Bible 
teacher  and  lecturer. 

In  Chicago  Pulpits 

The  Rev.  A.  C.  Anda  was  one  of  the 
seven  that  comprised  the  student  body 
when  the  Chicago  Seminary  opened.  He 
was  a  member  of  St.  Paul's  Church,  of 
which  Dr.  Weidner  was  supply  pastor. 
For  a  time  student  Anda  was  the  doctor's 
assistant  in  St.  Paul's.  In  this  way  the 
student    was    closely    and    intimately    as- 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher         37 

sociated  with  his  professor.  Pastor  Anda 
has  furnished  us  Avith  a  number  of  the 
striking  incidents  here  recorded. 

It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for  Dr. 
Weidner  to  receive  tw^enty-five  and  fifty 
dollars  for  a  sermon.  Many  such  offers  he 
had  to  decline.  On  one  occasion  a  rich 
Presbyterian  congregation  offered  him  one 
hundred  dollars  for  one  sermon  on  some 
phase  of  the  Pauline  Epistles.  For  a  time 
he  received  one  hundred  dollars  every 
Saturday  for  two  afternoon  lectures  in 
Moody  Institute  on  what  became  his  New 
Testament  Studies  in  the  Book.  After  one 
of  these  lectures  on  the  operations  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  Mr.  Moody  got  up  and  said 
that  he  had  learned  more  from  Dr.  Weidner 
about  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit  than  he 
had  ever  known  before.  Pastor  Anda  in- 
forms us  that  at  about  the  same  time  when 
it  is  claimed  that  Dr.  Harper  offered  Dr. 
Weidner  five  thousand  a  year  for  a  few 
hours  a  week  in  Hebrew,  Moody  also  offered 


38  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher 

Mm  five  thousand  a  year  for  a  smaller 
nmnber  of  hours  to  instruct  his  students  in 
the  contents  of  the  New  Testament. 
Student  Anda  asked  the  Doctor:  ''Are  you 
going  to  accept?"  Dr.  Weidner  was  then 
lecturing  to  his  little  band  of  Lutheran 
students  in  the  rented  frame  chapel,  which 
was  often  dark  and  cold  on  account  of  the 
smoking  stoves.  To  Mr.  Anda's  question 
the  Doctor  said:  "How  could  I  go  back  on 
my  own  Church?"  How  many  of  us  would 
have  done  the  same  ?  Would  not  most  of  us 
have  been  tempted  to  salve  our  consciences 
by  saying  that  these  offers  would  bring 
opportunities  for  teaching  God's  Word  to 
so  many  more,  that  they  opened  a  far  greater 
and  more  effectual  door  and  that  it  was  our 
duty  to  accept  the  field  of  broader  influence 
for  good?  Dr.  Weidner  stayed  with  his 
feeble,  homeless,  moneyless,  supportless 
seminary  for  fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  year. 
During  his  first  year  in  our  Chicago 
seminary    Dr.    Weidner    had    worked    out 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher  39 

several  addresses  for  synods  and  general 
gatherings  of  Lutherans.  One  was  on  *'The 
Model  Minister";  another  on  ''The  Model 
Student,"  and  still  another  on  "A  Model 
Course  of  Study."  These  addresses  were 
received  with  interest  and  enthusiasm 
wherever  they  were  delivered.  They 
brought  Dr.  Weidner  and  the  young 
seminary  before  audiences  that  had  been 
strangers  to  the  man  and  to  his  new  move- 
ment. 

Many  stories  are  afloat  about  Dr. 
Weidner 's  preaching  in  St.  Paul's  Church 
on  the  West  Side  of  Chicago.  He  did  more 
than  preach.  He  could  always  make  his 
people  work.  The  members  of  the  church 
council  had  never  worked  as  they  did  under 
Pastor  Weidner.  The  work  of  the  congre- 
gation and  of  every  department  was 
thoroughly  systematized.  Every  one  who 
held  an  office  in  the  church,  in  any  society, 
in  the  Sunday-school,  was  made  to  realize 
that  it  meant  a  responsibility  and  conscien- 


40  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher 

tious  work.  Every  one  had  to  give  an  ac- 
count of  his  stewardship.  The  congregation 
grew  in  numbers,  in  per  capita  contributions 
and  in  activity.  The  Sunday-school  became 
the  largest  among  Chicago  Lutherans.  St. 
Paul's  was  made  a  power  in  the  coimnunity. 
Four  young  men  w^ere  started  towards  the 
ministry  during  that  short  pastorate. 

The  pulpit  was  a  veritable  dynamo. 
The  vigorous,  often  vociferous,  realistically 
dramatic,  and  graphic  preaching  crowded 
the  church.  A  large  revival  tent  was  set 
up  on  a  vacant  lot  across  the  street  from 
the  church  one  summer.  The  tent  preacher 
soon  heard  about  Dr.  Weidner  in  St.  Paul's. 
He  invited  the  Doctor  to  preach  in  the  tent. 
On  a  week-night  the  Doctor  went.  As  Dr. 
Passavant  would  express  it,  there  was  a 
great  shout  in  the  camp.  On  a  Sunday 
following  there  was  a  great  storm  and  the 
lot  on  which  the  tent  stood  was  flooded  so 
that  no  evening  service  could  be  held.  Dr. 
Weidner  sent  out  word  inviting  the  tent 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher  41 

people  into  Ms  church.  They  came.  They 
crowded  St.  Paul's  to  the  doors.  The 
Doctor  preached  on  the  Valley  of  the  Dry 
Bones.  That  sermon  is  still  talked  about  on 
the  West  Side.  The  preacher  made  the 
people  see  the  valley,  the  bones,  the  ghastly 
deadness  that  appalled  the  beholder.  He 
shouted  to  the  people  that  such  were  all 
they  who  were  living  their  life  in  sin  and  in 
impenitence.  Then  he  made  them  see  how 
the  Spirit  of  God,  through  the  Word  of  Grod, 
could  breathe  upon  these  bones  and  make 
them  live.  He  made  them  realize  that  that 
Spirit  was  now  breathing  through  that 
Word  on  the  stony  hearts  before  him. 

That  sermon  bore  fruit.  That  tent 
meeting  did  not  hurt  St.  Paul's  Church.  On 
the  contrary,  St.  Paul's  grew  and  abounded 
yet  more  and  more. 

He  preached  with  his  little  Revised 
Testament  in  his  hand  and  read  from  it 
again  and  again  during  his  preaching.    His 


42  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher 

sermons  were  not  built  on  strictly  homiletic 
lines. 

His  colleagues  and  students  in  the  Chi- 
cago Seminary  got  their  main  impression  of 
Dr.  Weidner  as  a  preacher  from  his  chapel 
addresses  at  Matins  and  Vespers.  Most  of 
the  time,  while  making  these  addresses,  Dr. 
Weidner  was  preaching.  He  carried  all  his 
pulpit  peculiarities  into  these  talks,  with 
the  exception  that  he  sat  instead  of  stand- 
ing. Frequently  and  unexpectedly  he 
would  say  the  most  droll,  startling  and  un- 
usual things.  We  never  knew  or  heard  of 
Dr.  Weidner  indulging  this  habit  in  the 
pulpit. 

The  Doctor  often  gave  these  chapel 
services  the  form  and  tone  of  a  recitation. 
He  would  have  the  students  bring  their 
Greek  Testaments,  drill  them  in  form  and 
vocabulary  and  have  them  memorize  and 
recite  as  in  a  class-room. 

The  Doctor  was  an  extremist  against 
the   use   of  tobacco.     In   expounding  the 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher  43 

pastoral  epistles,  when  he  would  come  to 
the  words:  ''Flee  youthful  lusts,"  he 
would  almost  invariably  inveigh  against 
tobacco. 

The  Doctor's  prepared  chapel  ad- 
dresses were  eloquent  and  impressive 
in  a  marked  degree.  He  knew  the 
psychology  of  the  soul.  He  could  portray 
the  process  of  the  workings  of  sin,  of  the 
law,  of  grace  through  the  Gospel  in  the  soul 
of  man.  When  thus  tracing  subjectively 
the  movements  of  sin  and  of  grace,  the 
Doctor  would  open  up  the  hidden  depths 
of  the  heart,  would  hold  up  before  the 
hearer  his  own  likeness  until  that  hearer 
would  have  to  say  "yes,  that  is  true;  that 
has  been  my  experience;  that  means  me." 
In  these  earnest  and  edifying  moods  the 
speaker  would  make  impressions  that  could 
never  be  lost.  A  deep  spirit  of  awe,  of 
searching  self-examination  would  often 
rest  upon  the  student  body.  They  will 
never   forget   some    of   these   truly   great 


44  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Preacher 

chapel  talks.  Students  have  confessed  to 
the  writer  of  this  that  they  received  im- 
pressions that  changed  the  course  of  their 
after  life.  We  could  name  men  eminently 
useful  in  the  ministry  who  hesitate  not  to 
say  that  they  were  brought  to  a  true  con- 
version through  some  of  these  chapel  talks 
by  Dr.  Weidner.  True  conversions  followed 
his  other  great  sermons  also.  This  is  the 
crowning  glory  of  the  truly  great  preacher. 


Dr.  Weidner 

as  Professor  in  Lake  View,  CliicaRO 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer 


H 


DR.  WEIDNER  AS  A  WRITER 

AD  Dr.  Weidner  lived  to  a  ripe  old 
age,  he  doubtless  would  have  become 
the  most  voluminous  writer  that  the 
American  Lutheran  Church  has  produced. 
He  was  cut  off  in  what  is  to  many  the  most 
productive  period  of  books  of  life.  Even  so, 
leaving  out  published  sermons,  the  Doctor 
probably  heads  the  list. 

He  loved  his  pen.  He  never  used  a 
typewriter.  He  knew  nothing  of  shorthand. 
But  he  never  seemed  to  become  weary  of 
sitting  at  his  desk,  composing,  compiling, 
translating,  editing,  reviewing,  classifying 
or  tabulating.  In  his  earlier  manhood,  be- 
fore he  became  so  corpulent,  he  would  stand 
at  a  high  desk  and  write.  He  commended 
this  habit  to  his  students  as  conducive  to 
health  and  as  saving  time  in  looking  up 
references  and  sources.  In  this  he  was 
doubtless  correct,  provided  that  the  desk  is 


48  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer 

high   enough  to  prevent  stooping  and  to 
compel  an  upright  posture. 

From  boyhood  up  Dr.  Weidner  was  an 
insatiable  buyer  of  books.  His  father  was 
a  man  of  sturdy  common  sense.  He  saw 
the  possibilities  in  his  bright  boy.  He  took 
that  boy  into  his  confidence,  and  encouraged 
him.  So  young  Weidner,  before  he  left 
home  and  throughout  his  student  years  was 
a  gatherer  of  books.  The  habit  grew  with 
his  years,  and  remained  to  the  last.  It  had 
become  a  mild  mania.  Among  his  fondest 
recreations  was  to  rummage  in  new  and 
second-hand  bookstores  or  catalogues,  to 
find  bargains  and  to  part  with  his  ready 
cash  all  too  easily.  This  is  one  thing  that 
kept  him  poor.  He  thus  gathered  what  is 
doubtless  one  of  the  largest  private  libraries 
in  our  Church.  He  was  an  omnivorous 
reader.  He  prided  himself  on  being  able  to 
get  the  contents  of  a  book  by  reading  a  few 
lines  of  each  page  and  here  and  there  a 
paragraph. 


H.  W.  Roth,  D.D. 

Dr.  Weidner's  first  Colleague  in 
Chicago  Seminary 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer  49 

The  Doctor  took  an  early  liking  to 
history.  His  earliest  teaching  was  devoted 
to  this  subject.  The  build  of  his  mind  in- 
clined and  suited  him  to  this  study.  He 
loved  to  tarry  in  ancient  history.  This  led 
him  into  studies  in  archaeology.  For  this 
again  his  linguistic  attainments  were  of 
value.  These  last  two  tendencies  naturally 
led  him  into  a  critical  and  exegetical  study 
of  the  Bible. 

His  whole  range  of  historical  study 
made  him  a  great  lover  of  good  biography. 
He  never  wearied  of  urging  his  students  to 
study  the  life  stories  of  great  characters. 
He  had  no  time  for  fiction,  and  was  inter- 
estingly innocent  even  of  novels  that  were 
read  and  discussed  everywhere. 

Dr.  Weidner  also  had  his  literary  diver- 
sions. He  did  not  read  much  poetry  after 
his  student  years.  But  he  loved  Browning. 
He  would  often  give  readings  and  char- 
acterizations from  this  abstruse  and  spec- 
ulative poet  which  were  enjoyed  richly  by 


50  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer 

those  who  heard,  them.  He  had  a  great 
admiration  for  Ruskin.  He  had  made  a 
study  of  the  man  and  of  his  writings.  He 
had  prepared  several  illuminating  lectures 
on  this  many-sided  writer  which  were 
highly  appreciated  wherever  he  delivered 
them.  We  have  met  ministers  in  unex- 
pected quarters  who  ascribed  their  own 
interest  in  and  love  for  Browning  and 
Ruskin  to  Dr.  Weidner. 

Dr.  Weidner  began  early  to  be  a 
writer.  In  1869,  the  year  in  which  he  grad- 
uated from  college  with  honors,  he  brought 
out  an  original  translation  of  the  Prophecy 
of  Daniel  which  throws  much  light  on  that 
dark  book.  We  could  wish  that  he  might 
have  accompanied  it  with  explanatory 
notes.  His  general  view  of  the  meaning  of 
the  Book  can  be  gathered  from  his  Com- 
mentary on  the  Revelation  of  St.  John. 
While  Dr.  Weidner  was  working  on  Daniel, 
Dr.  Seiss  was  preparing  what  is  considered 
by  some  as  his  best  work,  viz.,  ''Voices 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer  51 

from  Babylon."  He  called  on  Dr.  Weidner 
for  assistance,  and  in  response  he  furnished 
Dr.  Seiss  with  many  valuable  annotations. 
Dr.  Seiss  indeed  uses  Dr.  Weidner 's  trans- 
lation throughout  his  book,  for  which  Dr. 
Weidner  also  prepared  the  index.  During 
the  later  seventies  Dr.  Weidner  was  a 
frequent  editorial  contributor  to  The 
Lutheran. 

In  those  early  days  Dr.  Weidner  felt 
that  the  General  Council  ought  to  have  a 
Theological  Review  of  its  own.  When  it  was 
first  projected  the  writer  of  this  wrote  to 
the  committee  in  charge,  suggesting  that 
an  earnest  effort  should  be  made  to  combine 
the  forthcoming  Review  with  the  Lutheran 
Quarterly,  published  at  Gettysburg.  The 
suggestion  was  not  deemed  feasible.  And 
so  Dr.  Weidner  became  the  founder  and 
editor  of  the  Lutheran  Church  Review,  the 
first  number  of  which  was  issued  in  1881. 
For  five  years  he  remained  the  editor.  As 
w^e  leaf  through  those   early  volumes   we 


52  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer 

note  how  the  young  editor  enlisted  the 
strongest  writers  in  the  Church  as  con- 
tributors, how  varied  and  timely  their  sub- 
jects and  what  large  space  is  given  to  book 
reviews. 

In  the  first  number  the  editor  has  a 
most  interesting  article  on  "The  Wonders 
of  Oriental  Studies."  This  is  a  review 
and  discussion  of  Geikie's  "Hours  With 
the  Bible."  In  the  same  number  there  are 
five  book  revicAvs  from  his  pen.  About  the 
same  number  of  reviews  from  his  pen  ap- 
pear in  each  of  the  numbers  which  he 
edited.  These  early  book  reviews  of  his 
strike  us  as  being  very  careful  and 
thorough.  In  the  volumes  for  1886  and 
1887  we  find  three  scholarly  articles  by  him 
on  "Studies  in  Obadiah." 

Dr.  Weidner 's  first  complete  book  w^as 
his  "Commentary  on  Mark."  This  was  in- 
tended for  the  use  of  Sunday-school  Teach- 
ers, Bible  classes  and  all  Bible  students.  It 
is  more  than  a  brief  commentary.    It  con- 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer  53 

tains  a  good  harmony  of  the  Gospels, 
worked  out  by  himself,  a  full  index  and 
questions  at  the  foot  of  each  page.  The 
comments  are  brief,  suggestive  and  prac- 
tical. 

In  1882  the  Doctor  started  to  work  out 
an  "Explanation  of  Luther's  Small  Cate- 
chism," for  the  use  of  several  grades  of 
pupils  and  catechumens.  But  it  grew  in 
the  author's  hands  until  he  had  sixty-nine 
pages  and  two  hundred  questions  and 
answers  on  the  Commandments  alone. 
Whether  he  saw  that  to  work  the  plan 
through  the  whole  catechism  would  make 
an  unusually  large  book,  or  whether  he  got 
into  other  work  too  deeply,  we  know  not.  At 
any  rate,  he  never  finished  the  Explanation 
of  the  Catechism. 

While  Dr.  Weidner  was  professor  in 
Rock  Island  he  began  the  preparation  of 
Text-Books  for  students  of  Theology.  This 
great  work  he  kept  up  till  a  few  days  before 
he  died. 


5^ Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer 

His  books  are  generally  based  on  larger 
German  works  or  on  Translations.  In  a 
number  of  cases  he  condensed  several  large 
books  into  one,  or  a  big  one  into  one  much 
smaller.  He  did  this  with  the  purpose  of 
bringing  them  into  the  compass  of  usable 
Text-Books.  This,  however,  does  not  apply 
to  the  great  work  on  Dogmatics  on  which 
he  was  working  when  he  died. 

Dr.  Weidner  did  not  write  for  the  com- 
mon people.  It  is  a  great  and  valuable 
achievement,  however,  that  he  made  avail- 
able for  the  Church,  for  her  theological 
seminaries,  and  for  her  ministry,  in  usable 
form,  the  essence  of  the  greatest  produc- 
tions of  the  greatest  minds  in  the  Church. 
He  wove  his  own  thinking  and  convictions 
more  or  less  into  all  these  works.  His  Foot- 
Notes,  references  to  other  writers  and  books 
on  the  subject  in  hand.  Bibliographies  and 
careful  Indexes  all  added  much  value  to  his 
books. 

In  1885  he  began  his  work  on  Theolog- 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer  55 

ical  Encyclopedia  and  Methodology.  This 
he  based  largely  on  the  voluminous  work  of 
Prof.  Karl  Hagenbach,  as  it  had  been  trans- 
lated into  English,  and  edited  by  Crooks  and 
Hearst.  Dr.  Weidner  worked  out  his  own 
Encyclopedia  in  three  small  volumes.  A 
very  valuable  part  of  this  work  was  the 
many  rich  quotations  from  the  manuscript 
lectures  of  Dr.  C.  P.  Krauth  as  he  had  given 
them  to  his  students  in  the  Philadelphia 
Seminary.  To  have  these  gems  from 
Krauth  alone  makes  the  work  one  that 
every  Lutheran  minister  should  prize. 
About  fifteen  years  later  Dr.  Weidner 
worked  the  three  books  over  into  two 
larger  ones.  He  added  much  new,  original 
matter,  as  well  as  much  from  Schaff's 
valuable  and  fresh  "Propaedeutic,"  which 
had  appeared  in  the  meantime.  The  al- 
ready large  lists  of  books  were  made  much 
larger.  These  lists  of  books  that  are  recom- 
mended to  the  student  take  up  a  large  part 
of  the  whole  work. 


56  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer 

Perhaps  the  most  widely  useful  of  all 
his  works  are  his  ''Studies  in  The  Book." 
Three  volumes  cover  the  whole  New  Testa- 
ment. They  are  unique  in  their  conception 
and  arrangement.  They  set  forth  in  il- 
luminating systematic  order  the  history 
and  contents  of  each  book,  interwoven  with 
much  helpful  explanation.  This  matter  is 
divided  into  "Lessons"  for  use  in  Bible 
study  classes.  After  each  biblical  study 
lesson  there  is  a  lesson  on  the  Order  of  Sal- 
vation, the  Person  and  Work  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  the  Means  and  Methods  of 
Grace.  Each  book  is  interleaved  with  good 
blank  paper.  The  books  were  prepared  for 
use  in  Moody's  Chicago  and  Northfield 
Bible  Schools.  Dr.  Weidner  had  outlined 
a  similar  series  to  cover  the  Old  Testament. 
The  volmne  on  Studies  in  the  Book  of 
Genesis  is  miusually  helpful  and  inspiring. 
In  these  studies  we  have  perhaps  his  most 
original  work  and  the  one  best  adapted  to 
the  reader  of  average  intelligence.    We  re- 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer 57 

gret  that  he  was  not  able  to  complete  the 
series.  All  the  books  of  the  series  that  are 
out  deserve  to  be  much  more  widely  known 
and  used  among  students  of  the  Bible. 

Among  the  best  known  of  Dr.  Weid- 
ner's  larger  theological  books  is  his  "Chris- 
tian Ethics."  This  is  mainly  a  condensa- 
tion of  that  invaluable,  comprehensive  and 
stimulating  three-volume  work  of  Bishop 
Martensen.  It  well  deserves  the  wide 
circulation  it  enjoys. 

His  condensation  and  editing  of  Day's 
translation  of  Oehler's  "Old  Testament 
Theology,"  and  his  two  volume  "New 
Testament  Theology,"  based  on  Bernhard 
Weiss,  with  much  original  matter,  both  in 
the  text  and  in  valuable  Foot-Notes,  make 
this  first  English  Lutheran  Biblical  Theol- 
ogy a  rich  contribution  to  our  theological 
literature. 

Dr.  Weidner  furnished  two  volumes 
of  The  Lutheran  Commentary,  one  on 
the    General   Epistles    and   the    other    on 


58 Dr.  IVeidner  as  a  Writer 

Revelation.  Both  of  them  are  unique 
and  characteristic  of  their  author.  In  both 
of  them  his  remarkably  wide  knowledge  of 
the  Bible  and  of  biblical  literature  are  in 
evidence.  They  are  more  than  commen- 
taries. The  notes,  appendices,  excursus 
and  other  references  add  much  to  their  in- 
trinsic value  and  helpfulness.  In  them  the 
eminent  Bible  scholar  stands  forth  in  his 
remarkable  strength  and  compass. 

The  crowning  work  of  his  literary  life 
Dr.  Weidner  was  not  permitted  to  finish. 
He  had  laid  out  a  twelve-volume  System  of 
Dogmatics.  Eighteen  years  ago  he  wrote 
the  first  voliune,  "Introduction  to  Dog- 
matics." It  is  a  veritable  cyclopedia  of  the 
history,  literature  and  sources  of  dogmatics. 
Counting  that  first  book,  the  Doctor  has 
written  eight  volumes. 

He  was  working  on  the  ninth  volume, 
''The  Doctrine  of  the  Word  of  God,"  when 
the  pen  dropped  from  his  tired  hands. 
After  this  one  there  were  still  left  to  be 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer 59 

written  "The  Doctrine  of  Holy  Baptism," 
"The  Doctrine  of  the  Lord's  Supper,"  and 
"The  Doctrine  of  the  Last  Things."  How 
eager  he  was  to  live  to  finish  this  monu- 
mental work!  But  the  good  Lord  willed  it 
otherwise. 

It  is  difficult  to  characterize  this  great- 
est literary  undertaking  of  this  great  man. 
We  feel  safe  in  saying  that  in  Dogmatics 
Dr.  Weidner  was  at  his  best.  He  loved  it 
more  than  he  loved  his  necessary  food. 

Dr.  Weidner  was  never  affected  by  the 
wanderings  and  vagaries  of  liberal  Theol- 
ogy. He  stood  four-square  and  firm  on  the 
old  foundations  of  orthodox  Lutheranism. 
He  wanted  every  point  proved  by  Scripture. 
He  brought  in  a  wealth  of  learning  from 
collateral  literature.  He  knew  the  trends 
and  tendencies  of  the  theological  thinking 
of  the  day.  He  knew  how  to  compare  the 
new  wine  with  the  old.  He  was  convinced 
and  he  could  convince  his  students  that  the 
old  is  better.    The  old  is  better  not  because 


60  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer 

it  is  old,  but  because  it  is  what  God  gave  us, 
and  it  satisfies  the  deepest  wants  of  the 
soul.  Not  every  user  of  Weidner 's  Dog- 
matics will  agree  with  every  detail  that  he 
worked  out.  Neither  will  every  one  agree 
always  that  his  way  of  putting  things  is  the 
best  or  the  only  way.  But  on  the  whole  his 
teaching  will  be  accepted  as  sound  and 
Scriptural  by  loyal  Lutherans. 

The  value  of  these  books  on  Dogmatics 
is  greatly  enhanced  by  the  Bibliography, 
the  full  Table  of  Contents  and  the  careful 
Index  that  are  a  part  of  each  volume. 

Had  Dr.  Weidner  written  nothing  but 
this  one  great  w^ork,  for  this  alone  the 
Church  would  ever  hold  him  in  loving  re- 
membrance. But  when  we,  in  addition  to 
this,  look  over  the  whole  number  of  his 
great  books  and  their  encyclopedic  range  of 
subject  matter,  we  are  amazed  that  one  man 
could  do  it  all.  Truly  Dr.  Weidner  was  one 
of  the  great  men  that  God  has  given  to  our 
Church  in  America. 


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Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer 6i 

A  further  word  needs  to  be  said  about 
Dr.  Weidner 's  unpublished  writings.  We 
do  not  believe  that  there  are  many.  The 
Doctor  had  profited  by  the  mistake  of  Dr. 
Krauth,  who  left  much  valuable  material 
that  was  unconnected  and  not  ready  for  the 
printer.  Dr.  Weidner,  as  a  rule,  made  what 
he  had  written  ready  for  the  printer  and 
had  it  rushed  to  press. 

We  know,  however,  that  he  had  worked 
out  in  part  a  series  of  devotional  and 
practical  meditations  for  the  inner  and 
outer  life  of  the  minister.  These  papers 
are  based  on  the  devotional  meditations  of 
certain  Anglican  writers  whom  the  Doctor 
greatly  admired.  These  writings  he  had 
recast  and  worked  over  to  suit  the  Lutheran 
minister  in  America. 

In  late  years  he  read  many  of  them  at 
chapel  services  and  before  ministerial 
gatherings.  Probably  his  last  public  utter- 
ance, to  other  than  his  student  group,  was, 
the  reading  of  one  of  these  papers  before 


62  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Writer 

the  Chicago  Union  Lutheran  Ministers' 
Association,  less  than  two  years  before  he 
died.  It  made  a  deep  impression  that  will 
never  be  forgotten.  We  doubt  whether 
there  is  in  the  English  language  a  collection 
of  devotional  meditations  that  is  more  deep, 
more  devout,  more  heart-searching  and 
more  rich  in  instruction,  admonition  and 
inspiration  for  a  deeper  spiritual  life. 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  President 


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DR.  WEIDNER  AS  A  PRESIDENT 

T  EADERS  are  born,  not  made.  If  one 
-■— '  has  in  him  the  gift  of  leadership,  he 
will  lead  somehow,  somewhere.  He  may 
not  be  able  to  get  a  special  course  of  train- 
ing. Many  of  the  world's  best  leaders  had 
poor  educational  advantages.  But  they 
found  and  made  the  most  of  opportunities 
that  others  w^ould  have  passed  by.  They 
gave  themselves  the  training  and  discipline 
that  they  needed.  True,  they  might  have 
become  still  greater  if  they  had  had  a 
special  course  of  education  for  their  special 
work.  But  after  all  is  said  young  men  and 
women  must  make  themselves  and  fit  them- 
selves for  their  futiu*e. 

As  we  have  seen.  Dr.  Weidner's  educa- 
tional opportunities  were  not  extraor- 
dinary. In  his  day  Muhlenberg  was  an 
ordinary  small  college.  It  was  not  what  it 
is  now.    Young  Weidner  did  not  study  at 


66  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  President 

a  great  university  in  the  East.  He  took  no 
special  courses  in  Europe.  He  got  what  the 
ordinary  English  Lutheran  minister  gets 
and  no  more. 

But  he  always  made  the  most  of  his 
opportunities.  He  found  and  invented 
special  ways  of  getting  special  advantages. 
Always  diligent  in  business  and  ever  fer- 
vent in  spirit,  he  was  a  leader  in  his  classes 
and  in  his  schools. 

He  knew  the  educational  value  of 
travel  and  of  contact  with  great  men.  He 
was  blessed  with  a  commanding  presence. 
His  build  was  something  like  that  of  D.  L. 
Moody,  whose  intimate  friend  and  frequent 
associate  he  was.  While  his  physical  frame 
was  large,  it  was  more  finely  proportioned 
than  was  Moody's.  He  did  not  have  the 
short  neck  of  the  latter.  It  is  said  that  he 
also  resembled  Joseph  Cook,  the  great 
Apologetic  Monday  Lecturer  in  Tremont 
Temple,  Boston.  Dr.  Weidner 's  fine,  phys- 
ical and  erect  presence  would  attract  atten- 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  President  67 

tion  anywhere.  On  his  trips  by  rail  and  in 
hotels  men  of  position  and  men  of  affairs 
would  find  him  and  he  would  find  them.  He 
would  learn  something  from  all  whom  he 
met. 

In  1884  he  took  the  first  of  his  many 
journeys  to  Europe.  On  every  voyage  he 
found  the  most  interesting  men  on  board 
and  gathered  and  imparted  information. 
On  this  journey  he  visited  the  Universities 
of  Upsala,  Leipzig  and  Berlin.  He  spent 
some  time  in  each  one  studying  and  com- 
paring the  equipment,  the  curricula,  the 
professors  and  their  methods.  These  habits 
of  investigation  and  camparison  he  kept  up 
on  all  his  future  travels.  Always  un- 
abashed he  would  introduce  himself  to  and 
interview  professors  and  other  men  of  note. 
On  this  journey  he  made  the  acquaintance 
of  Doctors  Luthardt,  Delitzsch  and  other 
notable  Lutherans. 

On  later  journeys  he  felt  himself 
specially  drawn  to  Oxford  University.    He 


68  Br.  Weidner  as  a  President 

made  a  minute  study  of  the  plant,  the  ar- 
rangement of  the  buildings,  their  outer  and 
inner  style  of  architecture  as  well  as  their 
furnishings.  Here  he  imbibed  his  love  for 
the  quadrangle  or  community  plan  which 
he  afterwards  carried  out  on  the  Maywood 
grounds.  Here  he  got  his  idea  and  plan  for 
our  much-admired  Commons.  And  so  he 
was  unconsciously  preparing  himself  to  be- 
come the  wonderful  president  of  Chicago 
Seminary. 

He  was  gifted  with  executive  ability. 
He  had  talent  for  detail.  He  did  not  forget 
or  overlook  what  to  others  seemed  like 
trifles.  He  was  almost  painfully  systemat- 
ic. He  had  high  ideals.  Whatever  he 
planned  or  laid  out  he  wanted  to  be  the 
most  advanced,  the  very  best  it  was 
possible  to  have.  In  the  way  of  study 
courses  and  curricula  he  had  learned  much 
from  Sweden,  Germany  and  England.  In 
the  way  of  practical  arrangement,  method 
and  application  he  had  learned  much  from 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  President 69 

Harper  and  Moody.  From  the  latter  espe- 
cially he  had  learned  that  the  teacher  and 
leader  must  put  the  deepest  spiritual  ear- 
nestness into  all  his  work  if  he  would  win. 
During  his  twelve  years  among  the  Sw^edes 
he  had  associated  with  their  ablest  and  most 
consecrated  leaders.  He  had  his  own  spirit- 
ual nature  deepened  and  enriched  by  the 
fervent  piety  of  these  Augustana  men.  He 
received  much  from  them.  Doubtless  they 
and  their  institution  also  ow^e  much  to  hun. 
That  blessed  Eock  Island  experience  did 
much  to  fit  Dr.  Weidner  to  become  the  great 
president  of  Chicago  Seminary. 

Dr.  Weidner  was  glad  to  accept  the 
presidency.  He  was  not  ignorant  of  what 
it  would  mean  in  the  way  of  labor,  hardship, 
disappointment  and  hope  deferred.  He 
knew  the  story  of  the  small  beginnings,  the 
privations  and  the  disappointments  of 
Augustana  College  and  Seminary.  He  did 
not  rush  into  the  Chicago  undertaking 
blindly.    He  was  in  his  best  years.    He  was 


70  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  President 

full  of  ambitions  and  ideals.  He  wanted  an 
opportunity  to  carry  them  out.  He  wanted 
to  be  an  unhindered  and  an  unhampered 
leader.  For  the  joy  of  being  master  and  of 
mastering  whatever  was  under  him  or  in 
his  way  he  was  ready  to  lay  his  best  service, 
his  very  life  upon  the  altar. 

Together  with  Dr.  Passavant  (see  his 
Life  and  Letters)  and  the  board  of  directors 
appointed  by  Dr.  Krotel,  the  then  president 
of  the  General  Council,  Dr.  Weidner  care- 
fully worked  out  the  bases  and  the  plans  for 
the  new  institution.  He  saw  to  it  that  the 
school  which  was  a  creation  of  the  General 
Council  was  solidly  anchored  on  the  Prin- 
ciples of  Faith  and  Polity  of  that  Body  and 
that  its  future  fidelity  and  soundness  were 
safeguarded. 

When  it  came  to  laying  out  the  cur- 
riculum of  studies,  Dr.  Weidner  took  ad- 
vanced ground.  His  curriculum  contains 
all  the  basic  theological  disciplines  taught 
in    the    older    Lutheran    seminaries.      Dr. 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  President  71 

Weidner  made  a  new  departure  when  he 
insisted  that  graduation  should  not  depend 
on  the  length  of  time  spent  in  the  seminary 
but  on  the  mastering  and  the  passing  of 
examination  on  every  subject  required. 

Among  the  special  courses  that  Dr. 
Weidner  embodied  in  the  curriculum  are 
seventy-five  hours  in  the  history,  theory 
and  practice  of  Church  Music.  A  twenty- 
five  hour  course  in  Psychology  and  Logic. 
The  same  in  Rhetoric  and  advanced  English. 
One  hundre  dhours  a  year  in  Elocution  by 
a  specialist  in  Expression.  Twenty-five 
hours  in  Social  Ethics,  the  same  in  each  of 
these:  Pedagogy,  Sunday-school  Work, 
Foreign  Missions,  Home  Missions,  Inner 
Missions.  Fifty  hours  in  Apologetics.  Br. 
Weidner  believed  that  a  seminary  must 
above  all  else  train  men  to  preach.  He 
wanted  the  seminary  to  send  out  instructive 
and  convincing  preachers,  men  of  God  and 
of  spiritual  power,  men  who  can  bring  sin- 
ners to  repentance   and   to  personal,   ex- 


72  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  President 

perimental  faith,  a  faith  that  will  work  and 
serve;  men  who  can  meet  and  challenge  an 
unbelieving  world  and  put  to  silence  the 
foolishness  of  gainsayers.  The  Chicago 
Seminary  students  get  one  hundred  hours 
in  the  history,  theory  and  practice  of 
preaching,  without  comitmg  Rhetoric,  Elo- 
cution and  chapel  exercises.  Such  are  the 
requirements  for  seminary  graduation. 

Dr.  Weidner  was  sometimes  found 
fault  with  for  taking  his  students  over  too 
much  ground.  The  Chicago  Seminary  has 
been  accused  of  being  superficial.  But  it 
was  Dr.  Weidner 's  idea  and  that  of  his 
colleagues  that  a  seminary  is  only  the  begin- 
ning of  the  study  of  Theology.  It  is  only  an 
enlarged  Encyclopedia  of  Theology.  It 
ought  to  give  the  student  a  bird's-eye  view 
of  the  field,  give  him  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples and  the  essence  of  every  subject,  fill 
him  with  interest  in  and  a  love  for  it  and 
make  him  eager  to  be  a  systematic  student 
as  long  as  he  lives.    With  this  in  view  Dr. 


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Dr.  Weidner  as  a  President 75 

Weidner  laid  out  a  fourth  year  course  for 
advanced  work,  which  is  being  utilized  more 
and  more.  He  was  the  first  to  project  and 
formulate  a  systematized  and  comprehen- 
sive post-graduate  course  for  both  resident 
post-graduates  and  for  correspondence. 
Dr.  Weidner  also  planned  for  student  aid. 
His  plan  gives  the  beneficiary  student  work 
to  do.  For  this  work  he  is  paid  by  the 
hour.  He  thus  earns  all  the  help  he  gets 
and  is  not  a  receiver  of  charity. 

Another  feature  of  Chicago  Seminary 
work  projected  by  Dr.  Weidner  is  that  sub- 
jects are  studied  and  recited  on  consecutive 
days.  For  example,  instead  of  taking 
Church  History  two  or  three  hours  a  week 
for  three  years,  it  is  taken  every  day  for 
one  year.  And  so  with  every  other  subject 
except  where  there  is  a  special  reason  for 
keeping  a  particular  subject  before  the  stu- 
dents every  week  of  the  year.  This  method 
keeps  up  a  continuous  interest  and  is  a 
great  improvement  over  the  older  plans. 


74  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  President 

Surely  Dr.  Weidner  had  the  qualifica- 
tions for  a  president.  He  knew  what  he 
wanted  to  make  out  of  his  school  and  how 
to  attain  his  purpose.  No  wonder  that  his 
alma  mater,  Muhlenberg  College,  some 
years  ago  made  strenuous  efforts  to  secure 
him  for  president. 

A  man  who  has  a  gift  for  ruling  and 
who  loves  to  rule  often  becomes  autocratic 
and  arbitrary.  This  is  a  weakness  common 
to  great  men,  but  not  confined  to  them. 
Some  small  men  are  worse  than  the  truly 
great. 

Dr.  Weidner  in  his  sphere  was  a  truly 
great  man.  He  did  sometimes  show  the 
common  weakness.  He  was  set  on  carry- 
ing out  his  own  views  and  desires.  He  did 
dislike  to  have  his  plans  or  purposes 
crossed.  Sometimes  he  w^ould  become  in- 
dignant when  his  views  were  opposed. 

But  his  indignation  would  soon  subside. 
Then  in  the  spirit  of  a  Christian  gentleman, 
he  would  confess  if  he  had  been  unkind 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  President  75 

and  would  manfully  beg  pardon.  This  also 
is  the  mark  of  a  great  and  good  man.  And 
for  this  reason  those  who  were  close  to  Dr. 
Weidner  and  who  were  sometimes  hurt  by 
him  could  not  cease  to  love  him.  His  kind- 
ness of  heart  was  as  big  as  the  bulk  of  his 
body.  He  had  an  undercurrent  of  feeling 
as  gentle  and  tender  as  a  woman's. 

It  was  a  strong  hand,  an  undaunted 
will,  and  an  unflinching  purpose  such  as 
Dr.  Weidner  possessed  that  was  needed  to 
launch  and  to  guide  the  new  enterprise. 
After  nearly  twenty-five  years  we  can  say 
of  the  seminary  which  Dr.  Weidner,  more 
than  any  other  man,  made  what  it  is,  what 
Daniel  Webster  said  of  Massachusetts: 
''There  she  is,  she  speaks  for  herself.'' 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Man 


DR.  WEIDNER  AS  A  MAN 

"pv  OCTOR  Weidner  was  a  great  man.  He 
^^  deserves  and  will  hold  a  place  among 
the  leaders  whom  God  has  given  to  our 
Church. 

Dr.  Weidner  was  a  good  man.  The  im- 
pulses of  his  great  warm  heart  were  always 
toward  the  good,  the  true  and  the  beautiful. 
Whatever  he  was  and  whatever  he  did  was 
always  wholehearted.  He  threw  his  whole 
big  energy  into  his  self-development  into 
the  nurture  of  his  inner,  spiritual  life,  as 
well  as  into  his  labors  for  the  spiritual  life 
of  others. 

Influenced  by  the  Swedes 

It  was  a  blessing  for  him  that  in  his 
young  manhood  he  was  thrown  among  the 
warm-hearted  Swedes.  Our  German  and 
Pennsylvania-German  ancestors  belong  to 
a    clear-headed,    energetic,    sturdy    stock. 


80  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Man 

There  is  an  element  of  solidity,  of  safety, 
and  of  sincerity  about  them  that  make 
them  reliable  in  their  character  and  in  their 
religion.  As  a  class  they  are  above  shallow 
emotionalism,  above  religious  pretence  and 
cant,  above  sham  in  their  personal  and  in 
their  church  life.  They  perhaps  are  in  pe- 
culiar danger  of  being  formal  and  cold  in 
their  religious  life.  They  need  constant 
self-examination,  heart-searching  watching 
and  praying  against  externalism  and  cold 
intellectualism. 

The  Scandinavians,  as  a  class,  are  more 
emotional.  They  live  more  in  their  feelings. 
They  are  warm-hearted,  affectionate  and 
more  or  less  impulsive.  Intellectually  they 
are  as  keen  and  bright  as  the  Germans. 
But  along  with  it  they  have  that  inner 
warmth,  that  deeper  feeling,  that  capacity 
for  and  manifestation  of  abounding  love. 
These  characteristics  they  carry  into  their 
religious  life.  This  life  thus  becomes  more 
expressive    of   the    subjective    side,    more 


Professor  in  Lake  View,  shortly  before  his  stroke  of  paralysis 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Man  81 

hearty,    more    pulsating    with    love    and 
devotion. 

Into  the  center  and  heart  of  this  re- 
ligious life  the  still  young  Weidner  was 
thrown.  He  threw  himself  into  it  with  his 
whole  great  natiu*e.  It  appealed  to  him. 
It  supplied  for  him  what  he  felt  he  needed 
and  what  he  wanted.  It  no  doubt  made  him 
a  different  man  from  what  he  would  have 
been,  had  he  remained  in  his  old  home.  He 
fell  in  love  with  w^hat  he  called  the  '^Swed- 
ish type  of  piety." 

Reciprocating  Influences 

We  have  often  felt  that  the  two  na- 
tional elements  that  God  threw  together  in 
the  earliest  Lutheranism  that  was  planted 
in  America  need  each  other.  The  Halle 
Germans  and  the  Swedes  mingled  freely  in 
the  pioneer  days.  They  joined  together  in 
organizing  the  first  Lutheran  synod.  They 
supplemented     and     complemented     each 


82  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Man 

other.    This  made  better  Lutherans  of  both. 
They  need  each  other  today. 

And  so  Dr.  Weidner 's  spiritual  life  was 
enriched  at  Rock  Island.  Here  also  he  be- 
came better  acquainted  with  Dr.  Passavant, 
who  appreciated  that  Swedish  type  of  piety 
so  highly.  And  here  Dr.  Passavant  came 
to  know  and  appreciate  Dr.  Weidner  more 
fully. 

A  Whole-hearted  Optimist 

As  has  been  said  before,  Dr.  Weidner 
was  a  whole-hearted  optimist.  There  was 
a  warmth  in  his  tone  and  in  his  words 
that  was  heartening  to  those  who  came  in 
contact  with  him.  During  the  earlier, 
darker  days  of  Chicago  Seminary  life  his 
buoyant  hopefulness  never  forsook  him. 
This  hopeful  faith  he  knew  how  to  instill 
into  others.  Many  a  time  when  the  writer 
of  this  felt  blue  he  would  go  to  the  Doctor 
for  consolation.  He  would  hear  our  plaint 
patiently,  would  show  us  the  silver  lining, 
laugh  in  his  own  hearty  way,  and  send  us 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Man  83 

home  with  new  heart  and  new  hope. 
Doubtless  this  is  the  testimony  also  of  every 
student  who  went  to  him  when  in  trouble. 
But  it  is  not  true  of  the  student  whom  the 
Doctor  believed  to  be  lazy  and  mifaithful. 
Such  an  one  would  go  away  feeling  that 
something  had  struck  him. 

When  a  sincere  but  perplexed  student 
had  come,  after  his  encouraging  counsel  and 
his  heartening  laugh,  the  Doctor  would  al- 
most invariably  end  up  with  saying: 
"Don't  be  discoiu-aged. "  This  has  prac- 
tically become  the  motto  of  the  Chicago 
Seminary. 

Dr.  Weidner  loved  his  students.  In  his 
earlier  days  he  would  take  regular  walks 
with  them  by  turns.  On  these  walks  he 
would  talk  on  some  instructive  subject, 
determined  on  beforehand  and  intended  for 
the  benefit  of  the  particular  student.  And 
so  with  his  colleagues.  The  writer  of  this 
will  never  forget  his  walks  and  talks  with 
Dr.  Weidner. 


84  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Man 

Dr.  Weidner  was  strong  in  Ms  likes  and 
in  his  dislikes.  Unhappy  the  man  in  whom 
he  had  lost  confidence. 

Popular  in  the  Social  Circle 

In  the  social  circle  Dr.  Weidner  was 
always  a  welcome  guest.  His  wide  and 
varied  range  of  knowledge,  his  large  ex- 
perience in  travel,  his  interesting  way  of 
putting  things  in  these  free  talk-fests,  made 
him  a  most  entertaining  conversationalist. 
He  was  not  a  story  teller.  But  he  greatly 
enjoyed  a  good  story.  We  recall  how  at  a 
supper  such  as  the  faculty  families  used  to 
en^oy  together  a  bear  story,  a  really  good 
one,  was  told.  The  Doctor  was  convulsed, 
and  almost  collapsed  with  laughter. 

The  Old  Homestead 

Dr.  Weidner  had  inherited  the  fine  farm 
of  his  parents  at  Centre  Valley,  Pa.,  with  its 
substantial,  roomy  and  many-windowed  old 
homestead.      We    used    to    say    to    him: 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Man 85 

*' Doctor,  if  we  had  a  farm  of  our  own  like 
that  we  should  never  ask  'where  shall  I 
spend  my  next  simamer'."  His  answer 
would  be:  "I  can't  stand  it  more  than  three 
days.  It's  too  monotonous  for  me."  After 
his  mother's  death  he  made  extensive  and 
expensive  improvements,  built  large  colon- 
nade porches  and  added  rooms  for  library 
and  study  purposes.  He  seemed  to  want  to 
make  himself  like  it  for  a  possible  place  of 
retirement.  The  neighbors  speak  of  seeing 
him  walk  back  and  forth  for  hours  on  his 
new,  big  porches.  But  no.  He  could  not 
content  himself  there.  He  must  away  to 
the  city,  the  sea-side,  the  ocean  steamer,  the 
historic  sights  and  intellectual  centers  of 
Europe,  or  the  Alps  of  Switzerland.  How 
he  did  love  the  ocean,  its  winds  and  waves 
and  salt  sea  air!  On  his  many  voyages  he 
read  many  books  and  made  the  acquaint- 
ance of  many  great  men,  ever  learning  and 
laying  up  in  store  for  future  use. 


86  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Man 

At  Home  in  the  Alps 

Few  Americans  know  Switzerland  and 
the  Alps  as  Dr.  Weidner  did.  It  was  his 
love  of  Alpine  scenery  that  was  the  occasion 
of  his  second  and  severest  stroke.  Before 
he  left  Chicago  for  that  journey  abroad  he 
had  about  regained  the  normal  use  of  his 
right  leg.  His  physician  had  advised  him 
that  the  leg  needed  regular  exercise.  But 
he  did  not  mean  overstraining  or  violent 
exercise.  On  a  beautiful  summer  evening 
our  traveler  was  resting  in  a  village  at  the 
foot  of  a  trans-Alpine  pass.  He  looked 
up  the  mountain,  and  made  up  his  mind  that 
he  would  climb  it  and  descend  on  the  op- 
posite side  next  day.  After  arranging  to 
have  his  baggage  sent  to  the  village  on  the 
other  side,  he  gave  orders  to  be  called  at 
early  dawn  and  went  to  bed.  Before  the 
sun  was  up  he  had  had  his  breakfast  and 
was  on  the  way  all  alone.  It  was  hot  when 
the  sun  rose.  Steadily  he  climbed  and  kept 
on  climbing.      At   high   noon  he  was  still 


Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Man  87 

several  hours  from  the  top.  At  this  height 
it  was  chilling  cold.  He  met  a  shepherd 
with  a  wine  skin.  From  him  he  obtained 
a  drink  of  wine.  This  is  all  the  refreshment 
he  had  throughout  that  long,  momentous 
day.  Several  hours  after  noon  he  reached 
the  summit.  Here  it  was  biting  cold.  He 
began  the  descent  and  kept  on,  literally 
dragging  himself  during  the  last  hours,  and 
arrived  after  nightfall  at  a  hotel  where  he 
was  known.  He  had  himself  bathed,  steam- 
ed and  massaged,  had  light  refreshments, 
a  tonic  and  almost  fell  into  bed.  He  had 
overdone.  There  is  a  limit  for  physical 
nature,  even  where  there  seems  to  be  none 
for  will-power.  That  night  he  had  his  sec- 
ond stroke.  He  was  removed  to  a  hospital 
in  Nuremberg,  Germany.  The  good  Lord 
and  himself  only  know  what  he  suffered 
during  the  weary  six  weeks  in  that  hospital. 


88  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  Man 

True  to  His  Friends 
Dr.  Weidner  was  always  true  to  his 
friends.  His  great  heart  made  him  capable 
of  being  a  friend  in  the  true  sense  and  of 
drawing  good  men  to  himself  in  the  bonds  of 
true  friendship.  Superficial  characters 
are  not  capable  of  friendship  in  the  full, 
deep,  mystic  sense  of  that  word.  There  are 
men  whom  we  like,  whom  we  admire,  but 
cannot  love.  Dr.  Weidner  was  a  man  whom 
his  friends  loved.  The  writer  of  this  loved 
him  like  a  brother.  Brothers  can  differ 
without  ceasing  to  love  each  other. 


Affliction  and  Death  of  Dr.  Weidner 


AFFLICTION  AND  DEATH  OF 
DR.  WEIDNER 

'T^  HOUGH  it  was  evident  to  all  who 
-■■  were  solicitously  watching  Dr.  Weid- 
ner  for  months,  we  might  really  say  for  two 
years,  that  he  was  slowly  but  surely  dying, 
yet  the  news  of  his  death  on  the  morning  of 
the  Festival  of  Epiphany,  1915,  came  with 
a  terrible  shock  to  us  all.  It  was  nearly  ten 
years  since  he  had  had  his  first  stroke  of 
paralysis.  Two  years  later,  while  in  Europe 
he  had  a  second  and  a  more  severe  stroke. 
For  weeks  he  had  suffered  in  a  hospital  in 
Nuremburg  and  his  life  seemed  ready  then 
to  flicker  out.  His  whole  right  side  was 
paralyzed. 

But  the  good  Lord  spared  him.  Under 
the  treatment  of  the  very  best  physicians 
he  recuperated  and  improved  so  that  he 
gradually  regained  the  partial  use  of  his 
right  hand.    He  and  his  friends  hoped  that 


92  Affliction  and  Death  of  Dr.  Weidner 

he  might  recover  completely.  But  he  was 
a  broken  man.  With  careful  medical 
treatment  and  rigid  dieting  he  lived  and 
labored  on.  God  in  His  great  mercy  kept 
his  mind  clear  and  active  to  the  last.  His 
eye  was  not  dimmed  and  the  natural  force 
of  that  marvelous  intellect  was  not  abated. 
During  the  summer  of  1913  he  took  his  last 
trip  to  Germany.  He  had  suffered  much 
from  heart  weakness,  shortness  of  breath 
and  sleeplessness  during  the  previous 
winter.  He  had  set  his  hopes  high  on 
the  treatment  under  world-famed  special- 
ists at  Bad  Naheim  in  Germany.  But  his 
recuperative  powers  were  failing.  On  his 
return  to  Maywood  we  saw  to  our  sorrow 
that  he  had  lost  much.  But  with  that  in- 
domitable will,  that  wonderful  heroism,  that 
rare  devotion  and  consecration  to  the  in- 
stitution that  he  had  founded  and  that  he 
loved  more  than  he  loved  his  life,  he  took 
up  the  burden  anew,  never  lost  a  class  room 
hour   while   in   Maywood,   and   kept  busy 


Affliction  and  Death  of  Dr.  Weidner 95 

writing  and  dictating  at  his  desk  day  after 
day  when  all  felt  that  he  should  have  been 
in  a  hospital. 

During  his  last  summer  he  rested,  read 
and  planned  by  the  seashore,  whose  waves 
and  breezes  he  loved  so  well.  From  there 
he  went  to  a  sanitarium  in  Waukesha,  Wis., 
where  he  felt  that  the  waters,  the  baths  and 
the  treatment  were  good  for  him.  Rested 
and  stimulated,  he  was  on  hand  with  new 
hopes  and  plans  for  his  seminar}^  at  the  fall 
opening.  He  was  happier  than  a  boy  on  the 
playground  when  he  saw  the  incoming  new 
class  of  thirty  men.  Again  he  leaned 
heavily  on  His  Lord,  whom  he  knew  so  well 
and  loved  so  ardently,  braced  himself  and 
went  to  work.  But  he  was  weary.  He  was 
a  dying  man.  As  he  heavily  dragged  him- 
self back  and  forth  from  his  class-room  he 
was  an  object  of  pity.  Sometimes  we  could 
have  wept  as  we  saw  the  pain  and  the  strain 
written  on  his  face.  To  the  day  when  he 
left  for  Florida  he  never  lost  an  hour. 


94  Affliction  and  Death  of  Dr.  Weidner 

He  had  a  hard  and  painful  trip  to 
Tangerine.  To  relieve  the  dropsical  con- 
dition that  had  been  developing  for  some 
time,  the  starving  process,  to  which  he  had 
been  subjected  for  several  years,  had  been 
made  more  rigid  than  ever.  We  actually 
believe  that  for  two  years  the  poor  man  was 
always  hungry.  And  so  he  suffered  on,  con- 
scious, cheerful  and  hopeful  to  the  last.  Be- 
fore us  lies  a  letter,  written  ten  days  before 
his  death,  running  over  with  that  loving 
kindness,  personal  affection  and  childlike 
frankness  so  characteristic  of  the  man.  In 
it  he  asks  the  writer  of  this  to  prepare 
another  article  setting  forth  what  manner 
of  men  the  ministers  of  Christ  ought  to  be 
in  their  private  life  and  personal  habits. 

On  all  his  journeys  Mrs.  Weidner  ac- 
companied the  Doctor.  From  the  beginning 
of  his  affliction  she  was  ever  at  his 
side.  Solicitous,  patient,  faithful,  she  at- 
tended him  at  home,  on  his  health-seeking 
and  oft  laborious  journeys  and  across  the 


Affliction  and  Death  of  Dr.  Weidner 95 

seas.  Not  rugged  by  nature,  the  good  Lord 
to  her  also  made  true  His  promise:  ''As  thy 
day  so  shall  thy  strength  be." 

What  an  example  of  heroism  and  con- 
secration Dr.  Weidner  has  left  to  the 
ministers  of  his  Church!  For  that  example, 
for  its  memory,  the  whole  Church  will  ever 
be  grateful  to  him.  May  all  of  us  who  had 
the  privilege  of  living  close  to  him,  as  stu- 
dents and  as  colleagues,  live  our  thanks. 

When  he  died  a  great  pall  fell  over  the 
Chicago  Seminary.  A  great  light  had  gone 
out  in  the  Lutheran  Church.  A  great  man 
and  a  mighty  had  fallen  in  Israel.  Well 
might  we  cry: 

Help,  Lord,  for  the  righteous  man 
ceaseth. 


o 

'> 
u 

CD 

o 


o 


CD 
O 

03 
O 

o 


fa 


Ph 


Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner 


F 


FUNERAL  OF  DR.  WEIDNER 

EW  funerals  have  taken  place  in  our 
Churcli  that  were  more  impressive 
than  was  the  funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner.  In 
some  respects  there  have  been  none  like  it. 
There  probably  was  none  at  which  there 
was  so  varied  a  representation  from  all 
parts  of  the  Church  and  from  the  outside. 
The  messages  of  appreciation  and  con- 
dolence came  from  presidents  of  synods, 
from  editors  of  Church  Periodicals,  from 
college  and  seminary  faculties,  and  from 
ministers'  associations  of  nearly  every 
General  Body  and  nearly  every  nationality 
in  the  Church.  Personal  representatives, 
bearing  tributes  of  appreciation  and  affec- 
tion were  present  from  Mount  Airy 
Seminary,  from  Waterloo,  Wittenberg, 
Augustana  and  Dana  Seminary  of  Blair, 
Nebraska.  Resolutions  were  read  from  the 
faculties  of  St.  Olaf  College,  the  United 


100  Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner 

Church  Seminary  and  Luther  Seminary  of 
the  Norwegian  Synod.  There  must  have 
been  nearly  two  hundred  ministers  present 
in  the  great  congregation  that  crowded  the 
Commons  to  the  doors. 

Dr.  Krauss,  the  acting  president,  had 
charge  of  the  services.  Dr.  Ramsey,  our 
professor  of  vocal  music,  had  trained  a 
chorus  choir  from  the  student  body  to  sing 
the  beautiful  burial  service  of  the  Church 
Book.  Dr.  Frick,  the  secretary  of  the  Board 
of  Directors,  conducted  the  liturgical 
service  and  read  the  lessons  in  his  usual 
clear  and  impressive  way. 

Dr.  Wagenhals,  president  of  the  Board, 
made  the  first  address.  In  outline  his 
message  was:  That  no  one  man  is  in- 
dispensable for  the  work  of  the  Lord.  Yet 
a  certain  man  seems  to  be  necessary  often 
for  the  inauguration  and  founding  of  some 
particular  work  in  the  kingdom.  Such  a 
man  was  Dr.  Weidner.  When  the  hour  had 
struck  for  the  opening  of  this  new  semi- 


Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner  101 

nary,  which  was  started  without  any  synod 
or  other  body  pledged  to  support  it,  without 
endowment  and  without  buildings,  he  was 
the  man  for  the  hour  and  for  the  work.  His 
great  faith,  his  abounding  optimism,  his  mi- 
failing  com^age  which  knew  no  defeat,  but 
rose  above  every  threatening  danger  and 
seemed  to  glory  in  difficulties  that  would 
have  made  most  men  beat  a  retreat,  showed 
him  to  be  the  man  of  God's  choosing.  He 
delighted  in  facing  and  overcoming  the 
hardships  from  which  so  many  shrink  back. 
After  his  first  stroke  of  paralysis.  Dr. 
Wagenhals  found  him  studying  the  ex- 
periences of  victims  of  such  visitations.  In 
a  voice  ringing  with  hopeful  courage,  he 
said  he  had  found  the  account  of  an  eminent 
man  who  had  labored  for  twenty  years  after 
his  stroke  and  had  done  his  best  work  dur- 
ing those  years.  And  in  a  triumphant  tone 
Dr.  Weidner  said,  "I  am  going  to  work  for 
twenty  years."  And  even  after  his  second 
and  sorer  stroke,  he  would  not  admit  that  he 


102  Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner 

must  give  up,  but  pulled  himself  together, 
subjected  himself  to  the  most  exacting  re- 
gimes prescribed  for  him,  seemingly  forced 
that  right  hand  to  write  again,  and  so  kejDt 
on  for  more  than  half  of  the  twenty  years 
he  w^anted  for  work.  He  has  his  place 
among  the  world's  worthies  who  through 
faith  overcame  the  world,  wrought  righte- 
ousness, obtained  promises,  out  of  weakness 
were  made  strong. 

Dr.  H.  W.  Roth,  who  was  Dr.  Weidner 's 
first  and,  for  a  time,  his  only,  colleague  as 
a  professor,  a  member  and  treasurer  of  our 
Board  from  its  organization,  delivered  the 
second  address. 

He  spoke  of  his  first  meeting  of  Dr. 
Weidner,  of  how  the  Doctor  looked  him  in 
the  eye  as  if  he  were  looking  through  him, 
of  the  firm,  warm  grasp  of  his  hand,  and  of 
the  mastering  impression  of  that  first 
meeting.  Dr.  Eoth  soon  got  an  idea  of  Dr. 
Weidner 's  keen  mind  and  encyclopedic 
scholarship.     Ere  long  he  learned  of  his 


Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner  103 

power  as  a  teacher.  And  so  Dr.  Roth  was 
satisfied  that  Dr.  Weidner  was  the  man  to 
make  the  Chicago  Seminary  and  to  make 
men  for  the  time  and  for  the  kingdom  out 
of  his  students. 

The  writer  of  this  spoke  as  the  repre- 
sentative of  the  faculty.  He  had  labored  at 
Dr.  Weidner 's  side  for  over  twenty  years. 
During  these  years  he  had  sometimes  dif- 
fered from  Dr.  Weidner  and  differed 
sharply,  but  had  never  ceased  to  love  him. 
There  was  in  Dr.  Weidner  that  bigness  of 
heart  and  mind  that  he  never  allowed  dif- 
ference of  viewpoint  and  opposition  in  idea 
and  plan  to  affect  his  personal  attitude. 
When  he  came  to  see  that  he  himself  had 
been  unkind  and  had  hurt  with  what  he  had 
said,  he  always  made  the  amende  honorable, 
not  only  of  a  gentleman  but  also  of  a  Chris- 
tian brother. 

But  the  writer  would  not  follow  his 
heart  and  speak  of  Dr.  Weidner  as  a  man 
or  as  a  friend  whom  he  loved  as  a  brother. 


104 Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner 

He  wanted  to  speak  of  the  seminary,  some- 
times affectionately  called  "  Weidner 's 
Seminary."  In  laying  out  his  courses  of 
study  Dr.  Weidner  had  taken  ground  in 
advance  of  the  usual  curricula.  He  had 
also  laid  out  the  first  scheme  of  post  grad- 
uate and  correspondence  work.  The  semi- 
nary would  doubtless  always  maintain  the 
broad  and  practical  scholarship  laid  down 
and  impressed  by  Dr.  Weidner. 

Dr.  Weidner  was  second  to  no  one  in  his 
appreciation  and  love  for  the  doctrines  of 
his  Church.  The  seminary  would  never  be 
swerved  from  that  soundness  of  doctrine. 
Dr.  Weidner  helped  to  make  the  charter, 
constitution  and  by-laws,  in  all  of  which  the 
faith  is  so  carefully  safeguarded. 

There  might  be  one  danger.  Dr.  Passa- 
vant  had  one  great,  deep  desire  for  this 
school  of  his  founding.  It  was  his  heart's 
desire  and  earnest  prayer  that  a  spirit  of 
deep  spiritual  life  and  consecration  might 
ever    characterize    this    institution.      This 


Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner  105 

moved  Mm  to  select  Dr.  Weidner  as  Ms 
choice  for  the  seminary's  head  and  leader. 
Dr.  Weidner  ever  insisted  on  heart  ex- 
perience, on  personal  consecration  in  all  his 
students.  May  the  Passavant  and  Weidner 
spirit  never  be  replaced  by  a  cold  intellect- 
ualism  and  rational  orthodoxism. 

President  Haas,  of  Muhlenberg  College, 
and  of  the  Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania, 
said  earth  was  made  poorer,  but  heaven 
richer  by  this  death.  He  was  glad  to  lay  his 
palm  branch  of  appreciation  on  the  bier  of 
one  whose  life  had  been  so  rich  and 
abundant.  Dr.  Haas  spoke  of  Dr.  Weidner 
as  a  student  of  Muhlenberg  College  and  of 
how  he  did  his  first  teaching  there  as  a  mere 
youth,  and  there  and  then  showed  his  won- 
derful aptitude  as  a  teacher.  Dr.  Weidner 
was  one  of  the  noblest  sons  of  the  old 
Ministerium  of  Pennsylvania,  in  which  he 
had  served  as  pastor  of  two  charges  for  the 
first  nine  years  of  his  ministry.  In  Dr. 
Haas '  early  life  he  was  deeply  impressed  by 


106  Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner 

that  inescapable  influence  of  Dr.  Weidner 's 
personality,  the  unconscious  influence  of  a 
consecrated  life,  whose  large  mind  and 
great  heart  were  filled  and  elevated  by  the 
divine  grace  that  ever  accompanied  him. 

He  stands  forth  as  a  monument  of  an 
unconquerable  faith,  a  faith  that  would 
know  no  such  thing  as  defeat,  that  removes 
mountains.  The  bright,  laughing  eye,  the 
warm  hand,  manifested  a  loving  heart  that 
was  touched  by  God.  Even  his  silent  pres- 
ence had  a  forceful  control  over  others.  In 
times  of  distress  he  was  like  a  sunbeam 
shining  forth  his  faith  in  God. 

He  ever  had  a  bright  hope,  a  great 
optimism.  This  was  not  that  shallow  kind 
which  shuts  its  eyes  to  sin  and  misery.  His 
was  born  and  sustained  by  his  faith  and  hope 
in  God.  His  willingness  to  accept  the  great 
charge  of  building  up  a  seminary,  with 
neither  synodical  support  assured,  nor 
buildings,   nor   endowment,   show   his   op- 


Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner  107 

timistic  faith  and  hope.  Is  his  work  done? 
No.  A  great  leader  in  Israel  has  risen  to- 
da}^  May  the  Chicago  Seminary  go  forth 
in  his  faith,  hope  and  love  until  we  of  the 
old  Ministerium  also  catch  Dr.  Weidner 's 
spirit. 

Dr.  Andre  en,  president  of  Angus  tana 
College  and  Seminary,  likened  Dr.  Weidner 
to  Samuel,  as  the  founder  of  a  school  of  the 
prophets,  as  a  wonderful  leader  whom  all 
the  people  loved  and  followed,  and  for 
whose  departure  they  made  great  mourn- 
ing. The  whole  Church  mourns  for  Dr. 
Weidner.  This  seminary  is  his  Ramah.  On 
this  campus  he  should  find  his  last  earthly 
resting  place.  The  tribute  of  Dr.  Andreen 
was  touching  and  beautiful. 

Dr.  H.  E.  Jacobs,  the  venerable  and 
scholarly  Dean  of  Mount  Airy  Seminary,  of 
which  Dr.  Weidner  and  all  his  colleagues, 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  were  graduates, 
said  he  came  to  testify  to  his  appreciation 
of  Dr.  Weidner  and  his  sjrmpathy  for  the 


108  Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner 

Chicago  Seminary  by  his  presence.  As  a 
representative  of  a  sister  institution  which, 
with  Chicago  Seminary,  constitutes  two  of 
a  long  line  of  fortresses  set  for  the  defence 
of  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures,  his  sympathy 
goes  out  to  this  institution.  When  one 
member  suffers,  all  the  members  suffer.  Dr. 
Jacobs  spoke  of  his  personal  friendship 
with  Dr.  Weidner,  which  reaches  back  to 
the  days  when  he  entered  the  Philadelphia 
Seminary  as  a  student.  As  Dr.  Weidner 
was  then  tutoring  a  private  student  in 
Hebrew,  Dr.  Jacobs  got  his  impression  of 
his  remarkable  gifts  as  a  teacher.  He  noted 
Student  Weidner 's  joy  in  teaching,  his  con- 
tagious enthusiasm  for  Hebrew,  which 
marked  him  as  an  exceptional  man. 

Dr.  Jacobs  told  us  how  he  was  as- 
sociated with  Dr.  Weidner  as  the  founder 
and  first  editor  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
Review.  Dr.  Jacobs  knew  something  of  the 
deliberations  which  resulted  in  Dr.  Weid- 
ner's  transfer  to  the  West.     Among  other 


Funeral  of  Dr.  IVeidner  109 

things  Dr.  Jacobs  said:  "When  I  look  back 
over  the  history  of  the  Chicago  Seminary 
and  see  what  God  hath  wrought,  I  feel 
abashed  that  Dr.  Weidner  had  the  faith  and 
courage  to  undertake  to  push  through, 
which  some  of  us  had  not.  In  my  home.  Dr. 
Weidner  told  me  that  he  was  not  afraid  to 
undertake  it.  And  what  a  work  it  is !  What 
^  joy,  what  enthusiasm,  his  sanguine 
temperament  infused  into  it!  He  took  no 
account  of  the  difficulties  in  the  way.  If 
ever  there  was  an  example  of  the  divine 
consciousness  of  a  mission,  that  example 
was  Eevere  Franklin  Weidner.  Resolutely, 
unflinchingly  and  unweariedly,  by  day  and 
by  night,  with  every  breath  of  his  body,  he 
pushed  the  work  on  to  his  own  end."  Dr. 
Weidner,  he  said,  was  above  all  else  a  great 
teacher.  There  his  reputation  will  mainly 
rest.  He  was  not  an  ecclesiastic.  He  did 
not  have  much  part  in  the  conventions  of 
the  General  Council.  His  heart  was  here  in 
the  seminary.    His  work  is  not  done.     As 


110  Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner 

we  look  over  this  campus  we  thank  God  for 
what  is,  and  for  what  Dr.  Weidner  has  done 
here.    What  God  hath  wrought! 

Dr.  Bauslin,  dean  of  Wittenberg  Semi- 
nary, Springfield,  Ohio,  told  us  that  as  soon 
as  word  of  Dr.  Weidner 's  death  was  re- 
ceived a  faculty  meeting  was  called,  resolu- 
tions of  sympathy  and  appreciation  were 
drawn  up,  and  he  was  deputed  to  bear  all 
this  to  us  in  person.  To  him  there  is  always 
a  pathos  in  a  new-made  grave.  What  dif- 
ferent endings  graves  show !  Here  the  most 
pathetic  thing  is  not  the  coffin  and  what  it 
holds,  but  that  draped  lecture  room.  That 
crepe-covered  desk  and  chair  from  which 
Dr.  Weidner  so  often  spoke  his  words  of 
wisdom  and  inspiration,  and  where  his  voice 
will  be  heard  no  more.  The  leader  and 
teacher  is  here  no  more.  But  the  work  goes 
on.  Dr.  Weidner  knew  how  to  make  the 
young  men  work.  This  was  one  of  his  chief 
characteristics  as  a  teacher.  He  was  a  man 
of  magnificent  natural  endowments,  a  great 


Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner  ill 

heart  and  an  indefatigable  industry  that 
never  knew  how  to  cease.  In  him  God  gave 
us  an  ecclesiastical  statesman  with  a  vision 
for  the  needs  of  the  Church  and  the  op- 
portunities of  Chicago  Seminary  to  help 
meet  those  needs.  He  might  have  become 
great  in  the  secular  world.  But  how  wise 
his  choice  of  service  in  the  kingdom  that 
knows  no  end! 

Dr.  Bauslin  also  called  attention  to  the 
great  work  before  our  great  Church  in  this 
great  land.  Amid  the  waves  of  liberalism, 
unbelief  and  misbelief  that  surge  around 
us,  we  must  stand  and  ever  hold  aloft  the 
banner  of  God's  truth.  Dr.  Weidner  braved 
the  rage  of  the  storm.  But  he  feared  not  for 
the  truth.  His  vision  was  clear.  And  now 
he  has  seen  the  King  in  His  beauty  and  we 
wait  and  work  and  serve  the  same  Christ 
and  his  same  Church.  But  we  need  each 
other.  And  at  the  bier  of  Dr.  Weidner  let 
us  draw  closer  together,  so  that  we  may 


112  Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner 

with  one  mind  and  with  one  heart  glorify 
God. 

President  Laury,  of  the  young  Lu- 
theran Seminary  in  Waterloo,  Ontario, 
brought  a  brief  but  beautiful  tribute  to  the 
departed  to  whom  he  is  related  by  ties  of 
blood.  Dr.  Weidner  had  influenced  him  also 
in  his  early  ministry,  had  given  him  a  vision 
of  what  his  church  ought  to  be  to  the  com- 
munity, and  had  helped  to  make  that  vision 
in  part  at  least  a  reality.  He  said  that  after 
this  remarkable  and  inspiring  funeral 
service,  he  would  go  back  to  his  young  and 
weak  school  with  new  heart,  new  hope,  new 
courage,  and  faith  that  God  would  make  of 
that  still  feeble  school  a  great  power  for 
God  and  for  His  Church. 

President  B.  F.  Hoefer,  of  the  Chicago 
Synod,  spoke  a  brief  word  of  love  and  ap- 
preciation. That  while  Dr.  Weidner  had 
been  too  busy  with  the  seminary  to  take 
much  direct  part  in  the  conventions  and 
work  of  the  synod,  his  counsel,  encourage- 


X 


Funeral  of  Dr.  Weidner  113 

ment  and  personal  heartening  of  the  men  of 
the  synod  had  always  been  of  great  value 
and  helpfulness. 

Dr.  Eamsey,  the  poet  of  our  faculty, 
read  his  beautiful  original  tribute  in  verse, 
which  is  found  below. 

Rarely  if  ever  has  it  been  our  privilege 
to  be  at  a  funeral  where  so  many  voices, 
from  such  widely  separated  and  different 
parts  of  the  Church,  were  so  spontaneous, 
so  hearty,  so  affectionate,  so  eloquent,  and 
so  harmonious  as  were  the  voices  heard  at 
Dr.  Weidner 's  funeral. 

''Blessed  are  the  dead  who  die  in  the 
Lord;  for  they  rest  from  their  labors  and 
their  works  do  follow  them." 

Doctor  Weidner  was  buried  in  Con- 
cordia Cemetery,  Forest  Park,  111.,  within 
less  than  a  mile  from  the  seminary. 

A  plain  red-stone  granite  monument 
marks  his  grave. 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Death 
of  Dr.  Weidner 


LESSONS  FROM  THE  LIFE  AND 
DEATH  OF  DR.  WEIDNER 

Tied  Up  With  the  Kingdom  of  God 

TOOK  at  Dr.  Weidner's  faith.  His 
•*^  aspirations,  his  hopes,  his  labors 
abundant  were  all  tied  up  with  the  kingdom 
of  Grod.  He  would  have  spurned  the  very 
idea  of  linking  himself  in  with  a  modern 
secret  society.  The  Church,  the  Bride  of 
Christ,  this  was  his  society. 

He  lived  in  the  Word  and  its  teaching. 
He  gladly  bowed  to  its  authority.  His  faith 
grew  out  of  the  Word,  fed  on  the  Word, 
was  obedient  to  the  Word.  In  early  youth 
he  learned  to  believe  that  faith,  true,  trust- 
ing, leaning,  clinging,  loving  faith  can  still 
remove  mountains  of  difficulty  and  opposi- 
tion. And  so  by  faith  that  plain,  country 
boy  grew  into  one  of  the  great  men  whose 
memory  our  whole  Church  delights  to 
honor.    By  faith  he  labored  on  in  every  sue- 


118    Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Death  of  Dr.  Weidner 

cessive  field  of  endeavor,  doing  with  his 
might  what  his  hand  found  to  do.  And  so 
by  faith  he  started  the  Chicago  Seminary, 
when  others  said  it  could  have  no  future. 
The  lack  of  equipment,  the  absence  of 
pledged  income,  the  non-existence  of  build- 
ings, endowment  or  colleges  for  feeders, 
abashed  him  not.  With  no  assurance  except 
faith  in  God  and  faith  in  God's  people.  Dr. 
Weidner  began  and  carried  to  its  present 
attainment  this  the  last  great  work  of  his 
life. 

The  Lure  of  Gold 
Here  it  is  well  to  recall  Dr.  Weidner 's 
temptation.  To  many  a  minister  it  would 
have  been  too  strong  to  withstand.  It  did 
not  trouble  him.  He  gave  it  a  passing 
thought,  laughed  at  it  and  let  it  go.  Dr. 
Weidner  had  not  learned  to  economize  in 
his  personal  expenses.  It  required  a  big 
salary  to  keep  him  comfortable.  When  he 
received  the  big  offers  named  above,  he  was 
getting  fifteen  hundred  a  year  in  cash  from 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Death  of  Dr.  Weidner     119 

the  Chicago  Seminary,  and  this  was  by  no 
means  prompt  in  payment. 

Does  the  Church  need  this  lesson?  Are 
none  of  our  ministers  susceptible  to  flatter- 
ing offers  of  big  salaries  from  without  their 
own  Church?  Should  such  temptations 
come,  remember  Dr.  Weidner.  His  noble 
example  of  self-denial  and  sacrifice  ought  to 
make  any  tempted  one  say:  ''Get  thee  be- 
hind me,  Satan. "  All  honor  to  Dr.  Weidner 
that  by  faith  he  chose  to  suffer  privation 
with  a  good  conscience  rather  than  doubtful 
honor  with  worldly  affluence.  His  example 
has  given  us  an  undeniable  answer  to  the 
skeptics  and  traducers  who  claim  that 
ministers  always  go  where  they  can  get  the 
highest  salary.  Not  so.  Wherever  there  is 
a  clear  conception  of  the  Lutheran  doctrine 
of  the  call  the  salary  alone  does  not  decide. 
Doctor  Weidner 's  example  was  in  harmony 
with  the  teaching  of  his  Church. 

In  the  midst  of  Dr.  Weidner 's  planning 
and  struggling  to  meet  the  financial  needs 


120    Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Death  of  Dr.  Weidner 

and  the  other,  even  greater  responsibilities 
of  making  the  young  seminary  go,  came  the 
proposition  to  sell  out  in  Lakeview,  Chi- 
cago, and  move  to  Maywood.  This  cost  the 
doctor  much  perplexity.  While  the  decision 
to  change  location  was  pending  he  was 
stricken,  sorely  stricken  with  paralysis. 
Did  his  faith  then  fail  him?  On  the  con- 
trary, it  became  clearer  and  firmer  than 
ever.  He  only  leaned  the  harder  on  his 
God,  whose  rod  and  staff  stayed  him.  And 
when  hope  of  recovery  had  again  become 
encouraging,  in  a  strange  land,  with  the 
great  sea  between  him  and  his  seminary,  a 
second  and  severer  stroke  fell.  During 
those  long,  lonely,  weary  weeks  of  the  sorest 
suffering  he  clambered  more  closely  to  the 
Word  and  the  Christ  of  the  Word,  and  by 
faith  he  returned  to  his  own  land.  He  was 
a  broken  man.  A  stricken  sufferer.  The 
weary  weeks  grew  into  months  and  the 
months  made  years.  Dr.  Weidner  suffered 
on.     He  never  gave  up.     He  labored  on. 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Death  of  Dr.  Weidner     121 

His  faith  never  flinched.  The  hopeful  smile 
was  in  the  face  of  pain.  The  cheery  tone 
was  in  the  weakening  voice.  He  suffered 
on.  He  was  slowly  dying,  and  yet,  as  the 
workless  night  was  drawing  nearer,  he 
worked  with  even  greater  determination, 
till  the  last  lecture  was  said,  the  last 
sentence  written  and  the  pen  dropped  from 
his  dying  hand. 

What  a  wonderful  faith,  what  ardent 
endurance.  What  spending  and  being 
spent  in  the  service  of  his  Lord  and  His 
Church.  What  a  lesson  for  his  students,  old 
and  new,  what  a  concrete  sermon  for  every 
minister,  what  dramatized  warning,  caution 
and  encouragement  for  all  of  us.  In  the 
face  of  this  object  lesson,  in  sight  of  this 
weary  walking,  working  while  dying  and 
dying  while  working,  seeing  this  sermon  in 
human  form,  shall  we  ever  again  whine  and 
complain  of  our  lot,  of  our  labor,  of  some- 
body else  having  a  better  place  and  position 
than  we  have? 


122    Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Death  of  Dr.  Weidner 

An  Ever-living  Sermon 

What  living  lessons  lie  here  for  the 
Chicago  Seminary.  That  Seminary  must 
never  lose  the  Weidner  faith  and  consecra- 
tion. The  Weidner  spirit,  the  deep,  living, 
experimental  heart  piety  that  he  ever  urged 
on  his  students  as  the  one  prime  requisite 
of  a  faithful  and  God-pleasing  minister  dare 
never  be  lost.  Should  it  ever  depart  from 
the  dormitories  and  lecture  halls  of  the 
Chicago  Seminary,  should  a  lifeless  ortho- 
doxy, a  spiritless  formalism  supplant  a  true 
life  springing  out  of  true  doctrine,  then  the 
glory  of  the  Seminary  shall  have  departed 
and  "Ichabod"  may  be  written  over  its 
doors. 

That  Seminary  needs  to  strive  more 
earnestly  than  ever  to  train  men  after 
Grod's  own  heart.  We  need  studious  men, 
life-long  students,  ever  growing  in  scholar- 
ship. Men  who  cannot  be  hoodwinked  by 
soft-sounding  phrases;  men  of  God;  men  of 
the  One  Book;  men  mighty  in  prayer;  men 


Lessons  from  the  Life  and  Death  of  Dr.  Weidner     123 

who  are  strong  for  the  overthrowing  of  the 
bulwarks  of  error  and  delusion.  Men  who 
are  assuredly  convinced  that  their  own 
Church  has  the  message  which  the  time  and 
people  need,  convinced  that  the  Scriptural 
teachings  of  their  own  Church  are  the  sure 
solvent  for  the  healing  of  the  world's  woe. 
If  the  Seminary  thus,  in  the  spirit  of 
Passavant  and  Weidner,  will  continue  to 
train  men  of  such  scholarship  and  spirit  as 
these  great  founders  desired,  then  her 
future  is  assured.  Then  will  she  ever  be  a 
powerhouse  that  shall  send  abroad  currents 
of  light  and  life  throughout  oiu"  land  and  to 
the  needy  lands  beyond  the  sea.  So  may  the 
Chicago  Seminary  ever  be  true  to  her  mis- 
sion. So  may  she  ever  reflect  credit  and 
glory  on  the  memory  of  her  first  great 
president.  Revere  Franklin  Weidner. 


As  One  of  His  Students  Saw  Him 


AS  ONE  OF  HIS  STUDENTS 
SAW  HIM 

A/TAY  I  give  you  two  pictures  of  a  great 
IVX  jjian?  They  are  so  unlike  I  will  not 
soon  forget  them. 

I  saw  him  first  when  I  was  a  small  boy, 
inclined  to  hero-worship.  And  he  was  then 
a  great  man,  in  the  full  glow  of  his  strength. 
He  came  swinging  up  the  street  with  a 
great  stride,  a  powerful  man,  broad,  square, 
with  a  massive  head  that  sat  proudly  on  the 
great  shoulders.  He  was  ''the  President, 
Dr.  Weidner."  To  say  he  was  magnetic  is 
too  little.  His  personality  radiated  energy, 
he  w^as  compelling,  dynamic.  A  leader  in 
the  theological  world,  writer  of  books  and 
writing  many  books — we  always  heard  of 
him  as  writing  a  new  book — known  among 
the  many  professors,  doctors  of  divinity, 
doctors  of  law  and  of  letters,  presidents  of 
colleges  and  universities  and  seminaries  in 


128  As  One  of  His  Students  Saw  Him 

the  city  where  he  did  his  great  work — a 
master  among  them  all,  and  respected  by 
all,  he  was  truly  a  great  man.  So  it  was  I 
saw  him  first,  as  he  swung  up  the  street  on 
his  way  to  class  in  his  strength,  and  took 
time  to  inquire  of  a  small  boy  about  his 
studies. 

And  I  saw  him  again,  after  many 
years;  and  now  it  was  in  his  classroom 
w^here  I  had  finally  come  as  a  student — and 
in  his  last  class.  In  the  passing  years  the 
great  body  had  broken  under  the  demands 
of  the  greater  will.  The  body  had  tired 
before  the  soul.  Had  the  soul  ever  tired? 
I  think  not.  At  least  he  never  showed  it, 
and  we  know  that  he  never  lost  hope  and 
faith.  But  the  straight  back  was  now  bent, 
the  black  hair  greyed  and  thinning  a  little, 
the  massive  head  now  bowed  a  little  be- 
tween the  broad  shoulders.  We  sat  and 
w^aited  for  him  in  the  dusk  as  he  came  to 
teach  his  last  class  the  great  system  of  faith 
he  had  given  his  life  to  defend.    Waited  as 


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^^B     I^^H 

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^^9 

^^^^^B/m}'                                                                        '  ^Ajl^^^^^^^^^l 

^^^^?^^^^^3^^^^^H 

^^E^                          ii^^^^^^^^^^^H 

"^^H 

^^^1 

^^^   <' ./"    J^^^^^^^^^^^H 

'^^^^^^H 
^^^^^^^^H 

One  of  Dr.  Weidncr's  last  good  pictures 


As  One  of  His  Students  Saw  Him  129 

he  dragged  his  dying  body  and  useless  leg 
to  bring  us  the  message  and  glow  of  Ms 
living  soul.  Waited  as  lie  took  that  long, 
breath-catching  walk  around  the  path  to 
the  lecture  hall,  the  careful  ascent  of  the 
step,  the  stop  for  rest,  and  then  the  heavy 
drag  of  the  foot  along  the  hall.  We  saw  it 
daily,  we  students,  an  object  lesson  in  de- 
votion to  duty  more  impressive  than  the 
impressive  lectures  of  the  heyday  of  his 
strength.  Still  a  great  man?  Yea,  though 
the  body  was  broken  and  the  back  bent.  A 
greater  man  in  that  heroic  fight  against 
death  than  ever  before.  When  he  dropped 
in  his  seat  he  was  nearly  spent.  Yet  the 
brown  eyes,  deep  beneath  the  heavy  brows, 
glowed  with  an  inextinguishable  fire. 

It  was  that  spirit,  that  fire,  that  made 
him  a  prince  of  teachers.  Ancient  people, 
summoned  by  his  wand,  passed  before  us  in 
marshalled  array,  in  their  pomp  and  cir- 
cumstance, with  their  poets  and  peasants, 
their  priests  and  kings;  storied  halls  and 


130  As  One  of  His  Students  Saw  Him 

columned  palaces  took  shape  before  our 
eyes  in  the  magic  mirror  of  his  clear  and 
burning  vision;  languages  long  dead  took 
life,  and  in  the  inflections,  conjugations, 
nay,  in  their  smallest  particle  and  accent 
we  read  the  thought  growth  of  nations.  I 
think  better  than  any  man  I  ever  knew  he 
could  impart  that  which  he  knew,  and  he 
knew  much.  He  imparted  what  he  knew 
and  made  us  wish  to  know.  He  was 
thorough  and  demanded  thoroughness  in 
others.  That  keen  eye  could  quickly  detect 
intellectual  shoddy.  In  its  light  the 
''bluffer"  stood  forth  in  the  embarrassed 
nakedness  of  his  pretence — and  ceased  to 
blufe. 

But  the  qualities  that  won  the  great 
love  of  his  pupils  were  his  sympathy  and 
courage.  He  always  had  time  to  hear  their 
troubles,  to  sympathize  with  them  and  to 
encourage  them.  "Don't  get  discouraged, 
boys,"  was  his  favorite  counsel. 

His   "boys"   were   his   children.     He 


As  One  of  His  Students  Saw  Him  131 

counselled  tliem  in  everything  from  dog- 
matics to  dietetics.  His  favorite  subjects 
for  advice  were  proper  excercise,  proper 
diet,  and  becoming  clerical  garb. 

A  great  man,  as  I  saw  him  in  his 
strength.  But  a  still  greater  man,  as  I  saw 
him  in  his  last  class. 

There  was  a  premonition  in  all  our 
hearts  that  this  was  the  last  time  he  would 
ever  occupy  his  professor's  chair.  It  was 
a  dark  December  afternoon,  and  we  waited 
long  as  he  made  his  last  toilsome  trip 
through  the  dusk — dragged  his  heavy  way 
in,  and  took  his  seat  for  the  last  time  as  a 
professor  in  the  chair  from  which  he  had 
shaped  the  thought  of  hundreds  of  men  now" 
preaching  the  Ancient  Truth.  It  was  the 
last  feeble  flickering  of  a  torch  of  light  that 
had  once  burned  with  a  fierce  flame — and 
too  often  at  both  ends.  A  few  closing  words 
on  the  Doctrine  of  Man,  an  exhortation  to 
preach  sin  and  God's  grace  only,  and  he 
bade  his  "boys"  goodbye,  "to  go  to  Florida 


132  As  One  of  His  Students  Saw  Him 

to  rest  and  get  well."  He  has  gone  to  the 
land  of  eternal  flowers  and  eternal  youth, 
where  he  shall  receive  a  garland  for  ashes, 
and  a  chaplet  of  joy  shall  crown  him 
eternally. 

Alexander  Maclaren,  in  one  of  his  ser- 
mons, says:  ''The  dead  are  the  living. 
They  lived  whilst  they  died,  and  after  they 
die  they  live  forever."  Thus  it  is,  and 
thus  it  shall  be,  with  our  departed 
President.  Paul  H.  Krauss. 


The  Loving  Cup 


THE  LOVING  CUP 

The  Student  Body's  Last  Token  of  Love  to 

Doctor  Weidner 
TT  was  a  sad  day  when  we  students  learned 
that  Doctor  Weidner  could  not  be  our 
teacher  throughout  the  whole  of  this  scho- 
lastic year.  We  immediately  planned  how 
we  best  could  give  material  expression  to 
our  esteem  for  him,  and  we  finally  decided 
to  buy  a  loving  cup,  the  best  to  be  had. 

On  December  4th  we  presented  this  cup 
to  him.  E.  F.  Valbracht  made  the  presenta- 
tion, explaining  to  the  Doctor  that,  since  he 
was  leaving  us  for  a  few  months,  the  stu- 
dents, especially  those  of  us  who  had 
studied  under  him  throughout  our  entire 
course,  desired  to  leave  this  cup  with  him  as 
a  mark  of  our  love  and  esteem. 

Sitting  in  his  chair,  the  Doctor  thanked 
us  in  his  characteristic  style,  telling  us  his 
appreciation,   but   reminding   us    that   we 


William  Eckert 

General  Secretary  during  last  years 
of  Dr.  Weidner 


PRESENTED  •  TO  •  OUR  •  PRESIDENT 

THE  •  REVEREND  •  PROFESSOR 

REVERE  ■  FRANKLIN  •  WEIDNER,  •  D.D.,  ■-  LL.D,,  •  S.T.D. 

AS  •  A  • TOKEN  •  OF • LOVE  •  AND  • ESTEEM 

THE  :  STUDENT  ■ BODY 

DECEMBER  •  FOURTH  •  NINETEEN  •  HUNDRED  •  FOURTEEN 

MAYWOOD,  '  ILLINOIS 


L.  W.  Rupp. 


Severe  JFranKlin  Xil?ei6ner 

T^  CoUeasuft's  tribute 

O  (Tburc^,  O  S<^ool.  O  brotb^rs.  hearken  all: — 

lament  anb  mourn  nor  be  ashamed  to  veeef : 
'Z\  goo6lY  tow'r,  anb  b^sb*  I"  Zlon's  wall 

Us  overthrown  anb  made  to  be  a  h^Q,af>, 
"^  tow'r  wltb  rooms  w^ere  finest  flour  was  stored; 

^b^*^^  Wisdom's  band  a  feast  of  fat  tbin^s 
spread; 
^b^i^^^^owledge  sat  wltb  Scbolarsblp  at  board; 

Vt^b^^^  wboso  bunkered  found  abundant  bread; 
'ZKnb  firmly  founded;  bullded  toward  tbe  skies; 

IFn  Elon  known,  and  by  tbe  tribes  around; 
^Y  b<^^  named  Strengtb.  and  lovely  In  b*^*^  eyes; 

^ut  now,  alas!  laid  even  wltb  Ib^  ground; 
^b^^^i>^  abode  a  valiant  soldier  souU 

'7\s  brave  a  b^^rt  as  Courage  ever  bred; 
ZXnb  well  may  Elon's  watcbmen  tell  \)zt  dole, — 
^fer  towV  tbrown  down,  tbe  soul  once  tenant 
fled. 


^preceptor,  "praeses.  Ipr^sh^Ur  In  one. 

"^Ijose  lamp  gave  Ugbt  to  man^  lamps  else  6lm; 
Ol)e  master  at  wl)0se  feet  sat  man^  a  son; 

'ZA,n6  lot  \)<i.  Is  not:  <Bo6  l)atb  taken  l)lm. 
t&otl)  armorer  of  Zlon's  mlgljt^  men 

ZAnb  mentor  of  l)er  messengers  of  peace; 
>)l?ltl)  strength  apparelled,  e'en  tl)e  strengtl)  of  ten 

Of  labors  full  till  called  of  <Bo6  to  cease; 
XCntiring  harvester  of  upland  grain. 

IKls  garners  l)ol6lng  man^  golden  s\:)^avzs; 
'^ongst  great  ones  great,  wltl)  princes  In  l)ls 
train; 

^or  l)lm.  brougl)t  low.  In  asljes  Zlon  grieves, 
^eneatl)  tl)ese   rooves    b^s   vanlsljed    presence 
lurks; 

I5l)ese  Ijaunts  anb  balls  b^s  echoed  voice  record, 
3fe  rests  from  labors,  followed  by  bl^  works, 

T^orever.  yea.  forever  wltb  b^^  Tl-ord. 


/f 


Princeton  Theological  Semina'y-5peef  Ubjary 


1    1012  01045  6137 


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